Session

Although often receiving only marginal attention in national development strategies, non-metropolitan, rural and peripheral areas are home to almost half of the European population. They bear major spatial functions and in many cases play a decisive role in political decision processes as well as regarding social and economic innovation. Peripheralised regions cannot (only) be seen as victims of overarching global, European or national macro processes and developments. Questioning current paradigms, which regard the city as the major centre for social, economic and political innovation, the session invites participants to perceive also peripheralised areas as active arenas within which future development perspectives arise. Against this background, the presentations in this panel examine local strategies of dealing with uneven spatial development as well as innovative activities from civil society and businesses in peripheralised spatial settings. They analyse their potential for new forms of regional development and bottom-up social, economic and policy change.