Regionalism

Regionalism may refer to:

Literature

Regionalism (art)

Regionalism or American Scene painting is an American realist modern art movement that was popular from 1920s through the 1950s in the United States. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life. Regionalist style was at its height from 1930 to 1935, and is best known through the so-called "Regionalist Triumvirate" of Grant Wood in Iowa, Thomas Hart Benton in Missouri, and John Steuart Curry in Kansas. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Regionalist art was widely appreciated for its reassuring images of the American heartland.

Much of American scene painting conveys a sense of nationalism and romanticism in depictions of everyday American life. During the 1930s, these artists documented and depicted American cities, small towns, and rural landscapes; some did so as a way to return to a simpler time away from industrialization whereas others sought to make a political statement and lent their art to revolutionary and radical causes. Representative artists include Thomas Hart Benton, Jim Turnbull, John Rogers Cox, Grant Wood, John Steuart Curry, Alexandre Hogue, Dale Nichols, Edna Reindel, Sanford Ross, and William S. Schwartz. Many artists involved in the movement studied with or under Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute. Artists influenced by the Regionalist movement that studied at KCAI include John Stockton de Martelly, Frederic James and Pat Potucek.

Regionalism (politics)

In politics, regionalism is a political ideology that focuses on the notional or normative interests of a particular region, group of regions or another subnational entity. These may be delineated by political divisions, administrative divisions, cultural boundaries, linguistic regions, and religious geography, among others.

Regionalists aim at increasing the political power and influence available to all or some residents of a region. Regionalist demands occur in "strong" forms, such as sovereignty, separatism, secession, and independence, as well as more moderate campaigns for greater autonomy (such as states' rights, decentralization, or devolution).

Regionalists, in the strict sense of the term, favor confederations over unitary nation states with strong central governments. They may, however, espouse also intermediate forms of federalism.

Proponents of regionalism usually claim that strengthening the governing bodies and political powers within a region, at the expense of a central, national government, will benefit local populations by improving regional or local economies, in terms of better fiscal responsibility, regional development, allocation of resources, implementation of local policies and plans, competitiveness among regions and, ultimately, the whole country. For some of its opponents regionalism is associated with particularism or anti-universalism, while for others it is a rival form of nationalism.