Coping with peripheralization in small cities. What is the role of human agency?

Exploring firm performance in Central and Eastern European regions: a foundational approach

“…We assume that it reflects the fact that foundational activities are often treated as residual, which is even more the case in CEE. Bosák, V. et al (2023) in a Czech municipal-level comparative analysis underline that the successful functioning of the tradable economy is conditioned by the FE, in the long-run, as it ensures social reproduction. Actually, an underdeveloped FE severely hinders local development overall, including further expansion of the tradable sectors.…”

“…The foundational approach breaks with the singular notion of 'the economy', operating with multiple economies and zones of activities that show very different features. In line with the literature, our article starts from the view that a strong foundational economy can strengthen the cohesion of urban and local economies, furthermore, it can have a higher relevance for peripheral, disadvantaged regions, saving them from the circular and mutually reinforcing spiral of deterioration (Bosák, V. et al 2023;Martynovich, M. et al 2023).…”

“…2007), rather, a well-functioning public sector or broadly defined FE is necessary for the whole regional and local economy to work efficiently. Moreover, as empirical evidence suggests (Bosák, V. et al 2023), in the long run, an underdeveloped FE can undermine the further expansion of the competitive economy.…”

Exiting the periphery: Possible pathways towards a socio‐economic and institutional de‐marginalization of places

“…Let us now turn our attention to the issues that in recent years have been frequently related to peripheral areas. and the huge economic lockdown this engendered (Bosák et al, 2023;Martin, 2021). However, it is a matter of fact that these two dramatic disruptions, recently coupled by the Russo-Ukrainian War and the related energy crisis and that are 'only supposed to be "once-in-a-century" events' (Martin, 2021, p. 12) have instead been experienced by the world economy in the space of just over a decade and have exposed and highlighted pronounced spatial inequalities in economic prosperity and welfare.…”

“…To do so, we follow a multidimensional conceptualization of periphery (Bosák et al, 2023). Peripheries are defined not only geographically by the distance from centres, but are also territorial areas characterized by political and institutional fragility, economic weakness, low standards of social cohesion, high levels of social inequality and above average poverty rates (Marques et al, 2019;Storti et al, 2022a).…”