Discussing inequalities from the periphery 167Nagy E. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (3) 167–170. DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.64.3.1 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 2015 (3) 167–170. Recently, the Hungarian Geographical Bul- letin – that had been a forum for introducing empirically focused papers covering vari- ous social and physical geographical issues for decades – became engaged increasingly in academic discourses on socio-spatial in- equalities, embracing various approaches and problems with diff erent scalar foci. The theoretical and methodological diversity that ranged from classical spatial analysis through humanistic geography to critical structural- ism and post-structuralism represented a shift not only toward a conceptual openness in geographical discourses but also to a (more) socially engaged research agenda. This mul- tiplicity and the ‘internationalisation’ of the journal – the switch for English language and the growing number of international authors – involved the Bulletin in academic discourses revolving around the major problems of so- cio-spatial polarisation, marginality, depend- ence and exclusion in European and also in global context. This special issue is meant to contribute to these ongoing debates on the diverse forms, contexts and processes of the (re)production of socio-spatial polarisation – form a Central and East European perspec- tive, bringing authors together from various institutions and countries working together in the Marie Curie ITN project ‘Socio-eco- nomic and Political Responses to Regional Polarisation in Central and Eastern Europe’ (RegPol2)2. Socio-spatial inequalities that manifested at multiple scales along various (economic, demographic, social, environmental, politi- cal, etc.) dimensions in Europe and deepened further as a consequence of the recent crisis have raised criticism towards the neoliberali- sation of principles and institutional practices of European and national policies, as well as towards the scholarly concepts that under- pinned them. A growing body of academic research focused on socio-spatial polarisation – including East-West diff erences – explain- ing the process in the context of the global capital fl ows, European division of labour and of imbalanced power relations (in economy, politics and knowledge production) driv- ing political discourses on development and cohesion and thus, the social construction of cores and peripheries (see e.g. Smith, A. and Pickles, J. 1998; Smith, A. and Timár, J. 2010; Hajdimichalis, C. 2011; Ehrlich, K. et al. 2012; Hirt, S. et al. 2013). Moreover, series of stud- ies focused on daily social practices at local scale in transition societies – revealing, how peripherality and marginality is experienced and responded to – raised a concern with agency and socio-cultural (historical) diver- sity in spaces labelled ‘backward’ or ‘periph- eral’ in popular and political discourses (see e.g. Hörschelmann, K. 2001; Váradi, M. 2005; Stenning, A. et al. 2011; Nagy, E. et al. 2015). The evolving debates on macrostructural processes, discourses and daily lives (re-)pro- ducing unevenness stimulated the critical revision of embedded concepts of centrality, peripherality, polarisation and peripheralisa- tion, raising arguments for relational thinking Discussing inequalities from the periphery Erika NAGY1 1 Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; H-5600 Békéscsaba, Szabó Dezső u. 42. E-mail: nagye@rkk.hu 2 “Socio-economic and Political Responses to Regional Polarisation in Central and Eastern Europe” (RegPol²), coordinated by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig, Germany. The project received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013/ under REA grant agreement n 607022. Nagy E. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (3) 167–170.168 on power, agency and discursive construc- tions of space – and against dichotomies-led thinking (Massey, D. 2008; Berndt, M. and Colini, L. 2013; Lang, T. 2015 in this issue). This special issue does not endeavour to give an overview of recent debates over the above notions. However, the papers question earlier argumentations, reveal the diversity of concepts of polarisation and peripheralisa- tion, and contribute to their re-conceptualisa- tion explicitly – by discussing the related the- ories critically – or implicitly – by employing relational approach and focusing on agency and on the social constructions of space. Thus, it is a forum not only for addressing the shortcomings of earlier research but also for challenging the dominant discourses on peripheralisation and polarisation ‘from the periphery’3, contributing to more balanced – socially and spatially ‘equal’ – relations in academic discussions and in policy making. In his lead-off paper, Thilo Lang focuses on the problems and dilemmas related to the conceptualisation of the persistence and the recent, crisis-driven deepening of socio- spatial inequalities within Europe, stress- ing the complexity, interrelatedness and the multiscalar nature of structural changes, discourses and social practices that produce uneven social geographies manifesting in intra-urban, urban/rural, metropolitan/non- metropolitan, and East–West European polarities. He highlights the shortcomings of the foregoing research that failed to ex- cavate the social relations driving peripher- alisation and polarisation processes of and within Central and Eastern Europe through policy discourses and institutional practices, moreover, to address the entanglement of manifold core-periphery relations and their variegated socio-cultural contexts. A new analytical concept is proposed in the paper, 3 I r e f e r h e r e t o t h e o n g o i n g d i s c u s s i o n o n marginalisation of social groups and spaces in academic and public discourses and to the arguments – forwarded by postcolonial theorists – for involving such groups in the debates to re- construct socio-spatial realities (see e.g. Stenning, A. and Hörschelmann, K. 2008; Kuus, M. 2013; Sharp, J. 2011). interpreting the notions of centralisation and peripheralisation as processes driven by mul- tiple social relations, and the refocusing our research on how centrality and peripheral- ity is constructed, performed, reacted to and reproduced by interactions and strategies of social agents linked to various scales. In this way, the paper contributes to avoiding the fallacies of dichotomy-biased thinking on the (re)production of inequalities in CEE and beyond – driving academic discourses oft en unperceived. József Benedek and Aura Moldovan fo- cuses on a more specifi c aspect of spatial inequalities – yet contributing to the re-con- ceptualisation of academic research on this major issue. They provide a critical overview of approaches and concepts discussing eco- nomic growth, convergence, and polarisa- tion to reveal their interrelatedness and to develop a relevant framework for explain- ing economic inequalities. Their discussion embraces (i) the traditional and the new growth theo- ries as well as the New Economic Geography that provide a sophisticated yet a limited (hard production factor-focused) explana- tion of persisting inequalities; (ii) selected concepts of sociology and history advancing the introduction of new (“soft ”) factors and of the time dimension into academic discourse, and thus, paving the way for new explanations of unequal eco- nomic development as a multidimensional process; (iii) various concepts of polarisation that help to explain inequalities in the context of the global economy defi ned by highly im- balanced power relations. The authors argue for combining various social and economic factors (dimensions) in the convergence stud- ies, for the introduction of the micro and the global scale into such analyses, moreover, for understanding convergence/divergence and economic growth as strongly interrelated processes that have a cumulative eff ect of spatial inequalities. Bradley Loewen’s paper contributes to the re-conceptualisation of academic research 169Nagy E. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (3) 167–170. on socio-spatial inequalities proposed also by Thilo Lang. Loewen calls for a critical analysis of European Cohesion Policy and of the related discourses to reveal the causal relations of the neoliberalisation of European policies and of the national institutional prac- tices with regional (sub-national) polarisa- tion processes. He argues that the shift in the principles of EU Regional Policy (from cohesion toward competitiveness) along with the normative approach driving European institutional practices enhanced socio-spatial inequalities – instead of easing them by capi- talising on regional qualities and diversity celebrated in policy discourses. He suggests to get a deeper understanding of various na- tional socio-cultural and political contexts in which, such policies and practices are unfold- ing – for which, he proposes the Comparative Historical Analysis as a relevant conceptual framework – and reveal the power relations that underpin the discourses on regional de- velopment at various scales to move beyond the Neoliberal normativity of recent regional policies that cannot counteract to socio-spa- tial polarisation processes. Péter Balogh’s paper takes us into the realm of popular discourse, focusing on the interrelatedness and the mutually constitu- tive nature of the material reality of periph- erality, its perceptions and of the artistic and popular scientifi c constructions of marginal spaces. Relying mostly on the illustrative case of County Békés in Southeast Hungary, the author takes a historical journey across the 20th century. He analyses critically, how peripherality was perceived and constructed in sociographic monographs of the interwar period and under socialism, and in the literary sources and art fi lms of the (post-)transition times – focusing not just on the content, but discussing also the wider social contexts as well as the authors’ refl exions on their own position. Balogh also contrasts the realities showed by artists and scientists to the roman- ticised and commercial images of peripheral spaces in popular scientifi c journals highlight- ing, how peripherality is constructed ‘from outside’, driven by non-local intellectuals. The author’s argumentation draws the reader’s at- tention to the problem of positionality and the need for (self-)refl exivity – issues scarcely dis- cussed in CEE-focused studies, so far. The contribution of Garri Raagmaa and Grete Kindel put agency and social networks in the focus of their analysis. Discussing changing local social relations in two periph- eral Estonian communities targeted by well- of urban dwellers seeking for second home they reveal, how the entry of a social group with major social capital assets (recreational home owners) has transformed local politi- cal landscapes. They point out that, while this powerful group extended its control over local processes – by exploiting their lo- cal and non-local networks – and stimulated structural changes for their own benefi t, local residents’ interests and needs were pushed into the background. The paper throws lights upon the signifi cance of agency in local proc- esses, and argues for discussing this issue in the context of highly complex power rela- tions linked to various scales – to understand the contested nature of transformations in peripheral communities. By this, the au- thors also challenge the positive meanings of the notions of change and development in relation to peripheral spaces and call for including the emerging powerlessness and marginality in our research agenda. REFERENCES Berndt, M. and Colini, L. 2013. Exclusion, marginaliza- tion and peripheralization. Working Paper 49. Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning. Ehrlich, K., Kriszan, A. and Lang, T. 2012. Urban Development in Central and Eastern Europe – Between Peripheralization and Centralization? disP – The Planning Review 48. (2): 77–92. Hadjimichalis, C. 2011: Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and soli- darity: European regions aft er the 2009 fi nancial crisis. European Urban and Regional Studies 18. (3): 254–274. Hirt, S., Sellar, C. and Young, C. 2013. Neoliberalism Meets the Eastern Bloc: Resistance, Appropriation and Purifi cation in Post-socialist Spaces. Europe- Asia Studies 65. (7): 1243–1254. Nagy E. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (3) 167–170.170 Hörschelmann, K. 2001. Breaking ground – Marginality and resistance in (post) unifi cation Germany. Political Geography 20. (8): 981–1004. Kuus, M. 2013. Places of lower rank: Margins in con- versations. Political Geography 37. 30–32. Lang, T. 2015. Socio-economic and Political Responses to Regional Polarisation and Socio-spatial Peripheralisation in Central and Eastern Europe: a research agenda. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, 64. (3): 171–185. Massey, D. 2008. For Space London, SAGE Nagy, E., Timár, J., Nagy, G. and Velkey, G. 2015. The Everyday Practices of the Reproduction of Peripherality and Marginality in Hungary. In Understanding Geographies of Polarization and Peripheralisation. Eds.: Lang, T., Henn, S., Ehrlich, K. and Sgibnev, W. Basingstoke, Palgrave. 135–155. Sharp, J. 2011. Subaltern geopolitics: Introduction. Geoforum 42. (3): 271–273. Smith, A. and Pickles, J. 1998. Introduction: Theorising transition and the political economy of transforma- tion. In Theorising transition. Eds.: Pickles, J. and Smith, A. London, Routledge, 1–23. Smith, A. and Timár, J. 2010. Uneven transformations: Space, economy and society 20 years aft er the col- lapse of state socialism. European Urban and Regional Studies, 17. (2): 115–125. Stenning, A., Smith, A., Rochovska, A. and Swiatek, D. 2011. Domesticating Neoliberalism. Spaces of Economic Practice and Social Reproduction in Post- socialist Cities. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell. Stenning, A. and Hörschelmann, K. 2008. History, geography and difference in the post-socialist world: or, do we still need post-socialism? Antipode 40. 312–335. Váradi, M. 2005. Increasingly Fossilised Labour Market Structures and Strategies of Livelihood: Chances of Disadvantaged Groups in the Labour Market. In Hungarian Spaces and Places: Patt erns of Transition. Eds.: Barta, Gy., G. Fekete, É., Szörényi- Kukorelli, I. and Timár, J. Pécs, Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 289–306. << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /None /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Error /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.0000 /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize false /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments true /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts true /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages true /ColorImageMinResolution 300 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 300 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /ARA /BGR /CHS /CHT /CZE /DAN /DEU /ESP /ETI /FRA /GRE /HEB /HRV (Za stvaranje Adobe PDF dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. Stvoreni PDF dokumenti mogu se otvoriti Acrobat i Adobe Reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /ITA /JPN /KOR /LTH /LVI /NLD (Gebruik deze instellingen om Adobe PDF-documenten te maken die zijn geoptimaliseerd voor prepress-afdrukken van hoge kwaliteit. De gemaakte PDF-documenten kunnen worden geopend met Acrobat en Adobe Reader 5.0 en hoger.) /NOR /POL /PTB /RUM /RUS /SKY /SLV /SUO /SVE /TUR /UKR /ENU (Use these settings to create Adobe PDF documents best suited for high-quality prepress printing. Created PDF documents can be opened with Acrobat and Adobe Reader 5.0 and later.) /HUN >> /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ << /AsReaderSpreads false /CropImagesToFrames true /ErrorControl /WarnAndContinue /FlattenerIgnoreSpreadOverrides false /IncludeGuidesGrids false /IncludeNonPrinting false /IncludeSlug false /Namespace [ (Adobe) (InDesign) (4.0) ] /OmitPlacedBitmaps false /OmitPlacedEPS false /OmitPlacedPDF false /SimulateOverprint /Legacy >> << /AddBleedMarks false /AddColorBars false /AddCropMarks false /AddPageInfo false /AddRegMarks false /ConvertColors /ConvertToCMYK /DestinationProfileName () /DestinationProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /Downsample16BitImages true /FlattenerPreset << /PresetSelector /MediumResolution >> /FormElements false /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles false /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (2.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /HWResolution [2400 2400] /PageSize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice