Resumen

TARACENA ARRIOLA, Arturo. Propuesta de definición histórica para región. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2008, n.35, pp.181-204. ISSN 0185-2620.

Set in the context of the recent debate at the heart of Mexican historiography on the use of the concept region and the viability of regional history, this article seeks to answer the question of whether, trapped by polysemy and empiricism, the latter appears to lack the theoretical and methodological elements that support it. It therefore explores the modern origin of the concept and the elements a region must contain for it to be regarded as such from the discipline of history and the existence of at least three types of region (thematic, historical and conjunctural). Finally, it points out that regional history can include both the emergence and the political, economic and territorial stages of transformation characteristic of regions, such as the gestation and birth of the nation-state to which they now belong. This is the reason why they can be compared at the Latin American level.

Palabras llave : region; regional history; historiography; Mexico; Latin America.