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Paper short abstract:

The continued marginalisation of Europe's rural regions: combining a critical evaluation of complexities faced by ultra-peripheral regions on the margins of the EU with an analysis of policies aimed at addressing issues inherent in these areas left behind by geography and capitalism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to address ways in which social, economic and cultural change in Europe continues to increasingly negatively affect the region's most marginalised geographical peripheries, those of depopulating rural areas in countries like Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and amongst others. A suggested framework for analysis is constructed through which the complex issue may be assessed, also taking into account that the minoritization of these peripheral rural communities is being further aggravated by increasingly rapid depopulation.

The work will seek to address issues tied to the further marginalization of these ultra-peripherical rural areas of Europe, left behind by geography and capitalism. Within these peripheries, gender, diversity and inclusion are excluded from the developmental discourse, going against the grain at a time that new rights are being secured for minority groups and as sensitivity towards many different forms of difference is has heightened in past decades.

Despite wide-ranging issues mirrored across numerous nations in Europe, limited attention has been so far paid to devising policy aimed at addressing the precarious future these peripherical zones are facing, whilst much attention and substantial resources have been funnelled into the conceptual antithesis at the core of modern Europe, the burgeoning smart city. If the problem is not tackled, the tendency will be for the trend to worsen, with a 2008 United Nations report warning of a formidable 70% of global citizens to be living in cities by 2060 (up from a 50% forecast for 2010 made by the body in 2008.)⁠⁠