Geographical "Regions" = Bigger than state and/or country: What's yours?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the recent thread Non-USA Dopers: Stand and be counted. Please. it is becoming apparent that perhaps country is too narrow a geographical designation for groupings of Dopers, and by extension the population as a whole.

This thread is primarily to avoid cluttering the linked thread, but the issue does apply to my efforts to summarize the 80+ responses (so far) in the other thread.

I also wanted USA Dopers to feel free to address the issue(s).

So here’s the question:

In addition to your state, province or country, what geographical area do you consider yourself to be a member of? I’ll leave it to your own definition(s), but as an example of what I’m driving at here are some that I feel a member of:

  1. Southeastern USA
  2. Southern USA
  3. Eastern USA
  4. Western Hemisphere
  5. Northern Hemisphere
  6. North America
  7. “The West” (as in lumped in with Europe)
  8. “The Americas”
  9. “The New World”

There are doubtless others I’m not thinking of offhand that I will claim membership in as your replies come in.

Here are some supplemental questions to consider if you are a non-USA dweller:

  1. What group of countries are in your “neighborhood”?
  2. Is there some grouping smaller than your continent that you’re comfortable with?
  3. Are there groupings of nearby countries that you don’t consider yourself to be part of?

To illustrate the last question’s intent, here are some examples:

Ireland may not like being considered part of the British Isles
Kazakhstan may not like being lumped in with the Middle East
Russia may prefer Europe to Asia as its continental kinship
Egypt may prefer Arab Countries to North Africa

Many other examples are possible, and I must leave it to your judgment to decide which apply to you.

Add criteria as you see fit.

2

I’m from New York City, and I think of myself as being from “the Northeast”.

3

Lessee here … relevant regional associations as they exist in my mind (live in the New Orleans metro area):

  1. Gulf South (the southern portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. Somehow … Houston and Tampa appear to me to lie just outside).
  2. The “South”, from a Deep South perspective (forget Mason-Dixon … Virginia and Maryland are all kinds of Northern to me. Kentucky and Tennessee are doubtful, as they are acquainted with actual snowfall)
  3. America (no explanation needed).
  4. North America north of the Rio Grande (Anglo-America + Quebec).
  5. The “West”/The Free World.
  6. Terran (should it ever come to that).
4

Let’s see…back when I was living back home in the Netherlands I would consider myself part of the following in order of ‘preference’;
Limburg
Euregio
Netherlands
Benelux
European Union

5

This is my first encounter with the terms Limburg and Euregio. My dictionary’s “geographical terms” includes Limburg but not Euregio. To save a bunch of web searching would you define these, please?

6

I live in the South, but my culture is not of the South. I would never say I am Southern, because I’m from Florida. However, not all of Florida is like this, because 60 miles north of here, I would definitely say is Southern.

So, I’m Floridian, and then American. We don’t fit down here culturally.

7

I live in Maryland, which is considered the Mid-Atlantic, or Eastern USA.

  1. What group of countries are in your “neighborhood”? I am a Canadian. Canada seems to be grouped in with the US all the time, due to our similar cultures and language.

  2. Is there some grouping smaller than your continent that you’re comfortable with?
    Alberta is considered to be part of the “Prairie Provinces”, which includes Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

  3. Are there groupings of nearby countries that you don’t consider yourself to be part of?
    I do not consider myself to be American and I do not like when people say that they consider Canada to be part of the USA.

8

Either the “Southwest” or the “Rocky Mountain West”.

Thw “West” is a misnomer, there is little in common between Utah, Idaho, and Montana, and California, Washington, and Oregon.

9

Where I’m living now:
Upper Valley (of the Connecticut River running between NH and VT) This is most important because the UV is a mix of natives and flatlanders and that adds a lot of the character and controversy to the area

then New England

then Northeast US

Where I grew up:

an IBM town

then the Hudson Valley/Catskills

then upstate from NYC

then Northeast US

10
  1. I live in Bahrain
  2. I live in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council - made up of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Oman)
  3. I live in the Middle East
  4. I live in Asia

FWIW, I think of Kazakhstan as being in Central Asia (technically same-same as Middle East, but more often Central Asia refers to that part of Asia that includes all the “*stans”, like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan (sp?), Tajikistan, etc)

11

Depends on what mood I’m in.

I grew up in “Northern California”. If people ask for something more specific, “the Bay Area” or “the North Bay”. I’m from a pretty small town, no one outside of the Bay Area has heard of it.

Or, I’ll just say I’m from San Francisco. Which isn’t untrue, either, I was born there and I lived there for the first several years of my life.

OR, in my more Midwestern moods, I’ll say I’m from Chicago. The Midwest. The Great Lakes.

Here in BG…I dunno. Obviously, I live in the Rose Valley, which is a narrow valley that runs east-west through the very center of the country. (If you look at a map of Bulgaria, I live in the exact center.) I’m south of the Balkan Mountains, (the Stara Planina), if just barely, so I’m in southern BG. The Balkans. Southeastern Europe. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years and retains a very strong Turkish cultural influence. I’d say culturally, it’s much more Middle Eastern than you might expect.

12

It’s interesting. For instance, Eastern and Western/Central Colorado are like different planets.
Rocky Mountains. Or the American West, but not West coast for me.