Search

This paper analyses the socio-economic implications of the imposition of 'zone under surveillance' status upon an area along the northern borders of Greece, throughout most of the twentieth century. This zone was enclosed to the north by a border separating Greece from other countries and to the south by a frontier separating the Greeks in the zone from the rest of their country. This state of affairs has created many problems within the surveillance zone (such as a feeling among the population that their area is under threat, less developed than and only partially assimilated to the rest of Greece). The paper focuses on the function of the surveillance zone as an 'internal frontier', and not on its earlier function as a defence mechanism, and on one particular part of the zone, in the prefecture of Xanthi, which is inhabited by Pomaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, economic resilience has become a popular term in both theory and policy practice. This interest was triggered by the fact that some regional economies were extremely vulnerable, while others have managed to overcome, more or less effectively, the worse consequences of the current economic crisis. Within this context, questions arise regarding the role that policies at both the national and subnational levels can play in shaping regional economic resilience. Although high in the academic and political agenda, understanding the policy and governance aspects of resilience still remains a relatively underdeveloped area. The paper contributes to this debate focusing on an area which has been most severely hit by crises, the Region of West Macedonia, in Greece. The case study builds on the historical trajectory of the region in order to explain how different types of policies have influenced the ability of West Macedonia to respond to economic slumps and crises of the last 30 years. Evidence suggests that national protectionist policies largely explain not only resilience of the region against previous crises, but also its vulnerability towards the still ongoing economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to shed light on the dynamic aspects of the Community Support Framework for Greece and to further explore its contributions to regional convergence. Given that, the majority of the Greek regions have been classed among the poorest regions of the European Union (EU) with a major inter and intra regional divergence gap, the issue of catching up the convergence factors acquires paramount importance in view of the new trends of European Community (EC) Regional Policies. Unquestionably, the convergence of the Greek regions requires a series of macroeconomic management devices and the encouragement of a series of soft and hard infrastructure projects which wilt restructure, upgrade and adjust their regional economy. The analysis of this paper will focus on the assistance stemming from the Regional and Structural Funds of the EU, plus the Cohesion Fund with the aim to uncover the factors which determine the extension and intensity of the convergence and divergence procedure. Using the data from the Community Support Framework (CSF I) (1989-1993), which has already been completed, attention will be paid to some of the basic problems which derisively impedes the real convergence of the Greek regions. The author will also examine in depth the criteria used by the competent authorities in allocating the funds to the regional bodies in relation with the existing regional imbalances and then he will propose a new synthetic method considering more factors which influence the final allocation approach. The conclusions of the paper might systematically unravel a series of problems facing the regions both socio-economic and administrative which if they are not effectively confronted may possibly enlarge the existing divergence gap of the Greek regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]