Overcoming Isolation and the Role of Transport: The Case of the Aegean Islands

Abstract

There are a large number of areas within the Community and the various other European countries, that suffer from poor accessibility with regard to central locations. This condition is invariably related to poor economic performance in the same regions, depopulation, etc. A term which has come to be used synonymously with all these conditions is ‘peripheral’ regions (or even countries). The notion of ‘peripherality’ is directly related to being on the ‘periphery’ with regard to a central area or centre, i.e. on the outskirts or circumference (as indeed in the original meaning of the Greek word ‘peripheria’ — periphery). In the context of regional development issues, periphery and peripheral have come to be today, almost synonymous with depressed, disadvantaged, weak.