GEOGRAPHY OF MICRO-STATES: MAIN ARISING ISSUES

Sidiropoulos George ()
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Sidiropoulos George: Department of Geography, University of the Aegean, Greece

Regional Science Inquiry, 2009, vol. 1, issue 1, 45-57

Abstract: News is often interspersed with reports from small islands. Reference is often made to them due to their small size, or due to their administrative autonomy or financial regime; usually attracting the common interest. Actually, what are the so-called microstates, virtual lands, unrecognized state entities, or ephemeral states? Their de facto distance from the centers of socio-economic developments contributes to the conservation of both their traditional social web and their natural environment, but at the same time, it deprives them the opportunities to keep in pace with the modern developments and renders them under the status of isolation. On the one hand, the barrier resulting from natural obstacles acts like a filter that bars the introduction of opportunistic innovations, and on the other hand geographical proximity would make contact with progress feasible. In other words, situation acts as an immune system which secures the better health of microstates.

Keywords: Microstate; micronation; small economies; insular space; quasi-state; sovereignty; development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 O18 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hrs:journl:v:1:y:2009:i:1:p:45-57

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