Hnatiuk A. Territorial identity of the population of Podolia: human-geographical aspects

The thesis justifies the feasibility of human-geographical approach for the study of territorial identity and lays down main principles and stages of such a study. Three techniques are recommended to use: the study of territorial identity as mental phenomenon; the study of territorial identity markers; the analysis of historical and geographical preconditions of territorial identity development. Also there is proved the use of cartographic methods, being both traditional and specific for geography. The thesis provides a theoretical synthesis of conceptual approaches, research hypotheses and modern ideas about the nature of territorial identity of population, its hierarchical, component and spatial structures, development, and typology; therefore, it expands conceptual and terminological apparatus of human geography in the study of territorial identity. Territorial identity as the object of human geography is defined as a set of individual or collective representations that define special mental connection of the individual or community with a particular territory and/or corresponding territorial community and is associated with the process of interpretation of local specificity, objectifying the territorial uniqueness into images, symbols and myths, shared and reproduced by members of the local community.