The (Re-)Production of Peripherality in Central and Eastern Europe

The idea of this special issue was inspired by two powerful processes that encompassed academic studies focused on socio-spatial inequalities within Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and beyond

The Discursive Construction of Innovation Policy in Peripheralising Estonia

An innovation-driven agenda in regional development policy has emerged in the European Union against the backdrop of peripheralisation, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Using a discursive analytical framework, the article investigates the ways in which peripheralisation is manifested through language, practices and power-rationalities in Estonian innovation policy discourse. The analysis is footed on key strategic policy documents and semi-structured expert interviews. Findings suggest that Estonian innovation policy’s main narrative of the ‘knowledge-based economy’ accepts growing disparities on sub-national level in order to overcome peripherality at European scale and narrows the range of policy solutions perceived as suitable

The contested politics of the Asian atom: a comparative analysis of peripheralisation and nuclear power in South Korea and Japan

South Korea and Japan have adhered to an unwavering commitment to a nuclear-focused energy supply system despite the contested nature of that technology and the unprecedented Fukushima accident in 2011. In this study, we explore the socio-political consequences of four nuclear-related facilities (Ulju, Gyeongju, Futaba, and Rokkasho) through the lens of social peripheralisation. This framework suggests that nuclear facilities will migrate to communities that are geographically remote, economically marginal, politically powerless, culturally defensive, and environmentally degraded. We expand and test this framework in two ways: moving beyond the UK (where it was developed) and moving beyond only nuclear waste repositories (to include reactors, fuel processing, on-site storage, and other elements of the lifecycle). We find that nuclear infrastructures in our four cases are imposed on peripheral regions, impairing not only the structure of local economies and political power, but also creating a discriminative structure in terms of social and environmental inequality. Peripheralisation suggests a deeper dynamic by which pro-nuclear attitudes become “locked in” socially and culturally so that communities come to depend on the very processes that made them peripheral. Community dynamics, subnational struggles, and contests over local power relations may determine the future of nuclear power

The Question of Responsibility: (De-)Peripheralising Rural Spaces in Post-Socialist Estonia

Recent studies on socio-spatial polarization and post-socialist spaces increasingly propose the use of postcolonial theory. Following this proposal, the paper attempts to make the decolonial approach fruitful for studying the crucial role that discourses play for rural peripheralisation processes in post-socialist Estonia. It shows that the Estonian discourses on peripheries manifest in a struggle between neoliberalism and interventionism as two competing regional development models that promote either self- or state responsibility for dealing with peripheralisation. Despite their differences, both models build on the same notion of modernity, as the colonial history associated with socialist modernity renders alternative models obsolete

Discussing inequalities from the periphery

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Peripherialisation as a Result and Driving Force of Territorial Mobility in Post-Socialist Romania

Over the past two and a half decades, the transition from a centralised to a market economy has affected Romania’s spatial configuration by re-widening the gap between cores and peripheries at a regional scale. Through a statistical analysis carried out for the North-West Region (NUTS 2), my contribution focuses on one of the mechanisms interrelated with peripheralisation, namely territorial mobility. The aim is twofold. First, to show how increasing core-periphery disparities impact mobility flows by offering different levels of structural (dis)advantages. Second, to exemplify how various social groups can influence these (dis)advantages by choosing their place of residence and work

Landscape, environment and community impacts of nuclear power

This paper is the third in a series of 8 that make up the evidence base for SDC report 'The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy'.This document investigates the landscape impacts of all the processes involved in nuclear power from mining the fuel ore to power transmission lines. Water use, community and employment impacts are also covered.Publisher PD

Peripheralisation trends in rural territories: the case of Lithuania

This article describes the main trends in the changes to the system of rural settlements in Lithuania and determines the regional peculiarities of these changes. The analysis was carried out using data collected during the censuses of 2001 and 2011, and information that was gathered during field trips to rural settlements across the country in 2013 and 2014. Our analysis showed that the population decreased in the majority of settlements independently of their size. However, distinct regional differences can be identified and these were especially evident when comparing the data collected from the rural settlements located close to the capital city (Vilnius) or regional centres (Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys and Alytus) with the data collected from the peripheral areas located further from cities or roads of regional importance. The survey showed that the north-eastern and southern parts of Lithuania are depopulated most, whereas in the western part of the country the number of residents was stable until 2000, and only in the 21st century did it start to decrease due to the increasing emigration rates. Also, the analysis of the structure of settlements allowed us to point out the historical circumstances as the cause of regional differences. In the north-eastern part of Lithuania the settlements are smaller than in the western part of Lithuania. The analysis shows that the increasing importance of the centre-periphery factor will further determine the decline of rural settlements in peripheral territories in Lithuania