Responses to Geographical Marginality and Marginalization: From Social Innovation to Regional Development

This book examines regional responses to marginality by highlighting social innovation, local capacity and new path formations in what are often seen as economically weak regions where policy and institutional considerations play a key role. Divided into three parts, it covers a wide range of topics related to geographical marginality from various angles, on both regional and local scales. The first part focuses on the role of social innovation and illustrates the themes of social innovation and new localism, local revitalization and social entrepreneurship. The second part then addresses the issues of economic responses, valorization, resource use and local action in response to marginalization. Lastly, the third part explores various policies and measures taken to respond to marginality and intensify regional development in marginal areas.  

Etienne Nel is a Professor at the Geography Department of the University of Otago in New Zealand. His research interests include regional and local economic development, and small town and community development in Africa and Australasia. He chaired the IGU Commission on Marginalization, Globalization, and Regional and Local Responses from 2004 to 2012. He was the Managing Editor of the New Zealand Geographer (2012–18) and is currently the Commissioning Editor for the Journal of Geography in Higher Education & for Local Economy. He has co-authored or co-edited 11 books, 6 conference proceedings, 48 book chapters and 112 articles.

 Stanko Pelc is a Professor of Geography at the University of Primorska in Koper, Slovenia. He studied at the Faculty of Arts, and at the Faculty of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy (M.Sc.) at the University of Ljubljana and the Faculty of Science at the University of Zagreb (Ph.D.). He has been involved in rural development and the planningof transportation systems, and he has taught at the University of Ljubljana and University of Maribor. He currently teaches at the Departments of Pre-school and Primary Education as well as at the Geography Department at the University of Primorska in Koper. His research interests cover many different fields, such as demography, transportation geography, local and regional development, marginality and marginalization, especially its social dimension and educational context. He is (co)author of 24 scientific articles, 22 published scientific conference contributions and 29 parts or chapters in monographs. He has edited four books and is the author of two books and one university textbook (in Slovenian).