ABSTRACT
Looked at from a geographic perspective, European peripheries turn out to be both contingent (they regularly change) and located just about anywhere (across the whole planet). The fact that periphery is an inherently relative status means that when European peripheries change, it affects the centres and not only the other way around. It also means that while there are many different forms of European peripheries, ranging from far-flung territories of the European Union in the Indian Ocean to the internal peripheries of Germany and the Balkan region, there are some key elements in the form the geographical element of the centre-periphery relation takes that shapes the dynamics of European peripheries. This introduction provides an outline of that relation.
