Social and Spatial Relation Between Small Towns and Villages in Peripheral Regions: Evidence from Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia

Abstract This article deals with the important issue concerning that small towns and villages play an important role in the development of many European regions, not only from the point of view of agricultural function, but also due to the preservation of identity and heritage as well as social relations and management of spatial structures. On the other hand, in small towns and villages, there are growing problems related to the migration of people to big cities, leaving farms and villages. Progressive unemployment is observed, especially in peripheral areas. The research question is: what are the similarities and differences of social and spatial relations between small towns and surrounding villages in the selected countries? The article aims to present the interface between social and spatial relationships in small towns and surrounding villages in the context of analyzing the potential of rural areas and models for their development. Authors compared the specificity of small towns and villages of selected regions of Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia. The following methods were used in the research: analysis and synthesis of literature and documents (legal and strategic), descriptive method, secondary data analysis, comparative method, visual data representation, case study.