A Typology of Peripheries

The discourse on peripheries is sophisticated and rich, also rich in controversies. Peripheries are not static units, but processes that change constantly. One way of providing a nuanced understanding of peripheries is the introduction of distinctions of different kinds of peripheries. The chapter suggests to distinguish between four types of peripheries: spatial peripheries (defined by geography), structural peripheries (contexts with limited resources and infrastructure, largely defined by economics), socio-political peripheries as the result of processes of marginalizing regions and people (largely defined by political science or sociology), and epistemic peripheries (forgotten or neglected fields of knowledge, defined, among others, by history and philosophy). This typology of four types of peripheries serves as the organizing principle of this handbook. There is obviously overlap between these different types, but the suggested distinctions offer perspective and can serve as sources of particular questions about the relation between “periphery” and “center.”