Polytraps in European rural mountainous regions: an expert view
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Many territorial and development policies in the European Union recognize that rural mountainous regions suffer from enduring natural and demographic disadvantages. These regions frequently face undesirable, persistent and self-reinforcing challenges, often conceptualized as traps. Through engagement with a panel of experts on mountainous regions, we examined whether the trap concept effectively explains the development challenges in European mountainous areas. We find that the distinguishing feature of these challenges is their multidimensional interrelatedness, which can give rise to multiple, simultaneously occurring traps (e.g. rigidity traps, poverty traps, lock-in traps, and regional development traps). In effect, we find that mountainous regions experience a polytrap – a complex of concurrent traps, maladaptive processes, an absence or severe limitation of bounce-back resilience, and difficulties in achieving bounce-forward resilience, largely due to dependence on external actors and factors. This polytrap concept emphasizes the need for rural policies to acknowledge these multifaceted challenges and both enable and promote place-based approaches for revitalizing left-behind places.
Source: European Planning Studies
Authors: Simo Sarkki, Theo Lynn, Juha Hiedanpää, Matteo Vizzarri, Irene Christoforidi, Stanislava Brnkalakova, Vlad Crisan, Antonia Egli, Pınar Gültekin, Yaşar Selman Gültekin, Mikko Jokinen, Antonio T. Monteiro, Mojca Nastran, Hakan Yasin Özdemir, Oksana Pelyukh, Ivan Sulc, Ivana Živojinović, Andrej Ficko
Institutions: University of Erfurt, University of Oulu, Dublin City University, Natural Resources Institute Finland, University of Milan, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry "Marin Drăcea", University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, Düzce Üniversitesi, University of Lisbon, Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, National Research Council, University of Ljubljana, Ukrainian National Forestry University, University of Zagreb, European Forest Institute, European Forest Institute, European Forest Institute, BOKU University
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: G2925899507, G6455958244
OpenAlex ID: W4408419085