The concept of “region” is widespread in the social sciences but rarely theorized. I argue here that region is a multivalent concept similar to ethnicity, nation, and race. Building on the work of Bourdieu, Brubaker, and Griswold, I show that all four concepts can be understood as both “categories of analysis” and “categories of practice.” Moreover, all four have fundamental similarities regarding (1) ontology and relation to space; (2) historical sequences and relation to time; and (3) protean boundaries that may change with social scientists’ research questions. Among the payoffs to this approach are improved precision and appropriateness of regional boundaries when social scientists use regions as independent or control variables and greater appreciation for how regions, as categories of practice, are made over time.

中文翻译：

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理论化地区：与种族，民族和种族的联系

“区域”的概念在社会科学中很普遍，但很少被理论化。我在这里争辩说，地区是一个与种族，民族和种族相似的多价概念。我以布迪厄，布鲁贝克和格里斯沃尔德的工作为基础，表明所有四个概念都可以理解为“分析类别”和“实践类别”。而且，这四个方面在（1）本体和与空间的关系上有根本的相似之处。（2）历史序列及其与时间的关系；（3）可能因社会科学家的研究问题而改变的蛋白质边界。这种方法的收益包括当社会科学家将区域用作独立变量或控制变量时，提高区域边界的准确性和适用性，以及对随着时间的流逝如何将区域作为实践类别进行更好的理解。