BOOK REVIEW - Thilo Lang and Franziska Görmar (eds.), Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarization. Re-thinking Spatial Policies in Europe
BOOK REVIEW - Thilo Lang and Franziska Görmar (eds.), Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarization. Re-thinking Spatial Policies in Europe

Summary/Abstract: The edited volume of Lang and Görmar argues that one should regard regional inequalities in a broader perspective, taking into consideration not only differences between central and peripheral places, the performance of lagging regions per se, or the “catch-up” perspective, but to look instead at the core-periphery relations and its subsequent processes: polarisation, centralisation and peripheralisation. The book starts with the assumption that polarisation is an ongoing process that is happening in a threefold manner within the EU: demographically, economically, and even electoral. The authors are searching for answers to a set of highly relevant and specific questions that deal with the nature of EU’s cohesion policy, the manner in which spatial inequalities are (re)produced. They also discuss the appropriate policy solutions focusing on alternatives to the neo-liberal mainstream and the extent to which current spatial policies could be reviewed in order to promote more equitable ways of development.

• Details
• Contents