Periphery

From Geography

Definition

Peripheria is an old Greek term that is used to describe the outside. In geographical terms we usually speak about the periphery in contexts of cities. The periphery is usually the lesser developed part of town that is usually located at the edge of the cities and far away from the often beatifull city centre. Periphery is an important term in geography and we can find this term in a lot of theories like the Central Place Theory of Christaller (1966) and other theories that involve spatial interaction.

Different scale levels.

When we use the geographic term of periphery we can look at this term at different scale-levels. We can for instance look at this definition on a city perspective. An example is that the neighborhoods at the edges of cities are usually less beautifull and developed than the city centres. The less developed areas are called periphery and the city centres are called centre. We can also look at this term at a bigger scale level. Countries for example also have a centre and a periphery. In the Netherlands 'de Randstad' can be seen as the (economic) centre of the country while for example the province of Drenthe can be seen as the periphery because of the lower (economic) activity. But how can we decide about the border between centre and periphery? What makes places periphery and why aren't activities concentrated in periphery areas, but are they concentrated in centres? The concept of centrality is giving an answer at this question in the Central Place Theory which states that a central place is a geographic location where services and goods are provided for a surrounding area.

Conclusion

Periphery is an important term within the field of human geography. A lot of theories from very influential scientists use this term and build theories around it. therefore it is nescessery for every human geographer to know what this term means. The contrary term to periphery is centre. The centre is the core area of a region, where most (social, economic or other) activity takes place.

References'

Christaller, W. (1933). Die zentralen Orte in Süddeutschland. Translated by Baskin, C. (1966) as Central Places in Southern Germany. Prentice Hall.

Contributors

• Created by Jan-Peter Hoste s4026349

• Edited by Robert Wursten on october 10th 2012

• Enhanced by Marleen Revenberg on October 17th 2012