Introduction

This chapter shows that global change and the ongoing processes of globalization and deregulation will lead to regional disparities and thus increase the significance of marginalization. It argues that the programme for the 1996–2000 period constitutes a solid extension of what has been achieved so far. The papers presented in The Hague constitute the first volume of the ‘Spatial Aspects of Marginality’ -series. At the beginning of July 1997 a meeting on Past Present and Future Cultural, Social and Economic Parameters of Marginal and Critical Regions was held in Harare, Zimbabwe. Behind marginal regions stands the concept of marginality, a term which has to be recognised as relative, depending in its manifestation on the scale used. Being a normative concept, it has a subjective touch, that is, marginality and marginal regions have to be defined specifically. Papers presented in the different annual meetings of the Study Group were published as proceeding by the local organizers.