@article { , title = {Small and Medium-Sized Towns in Europe: Conceptual, Methodological and Policy Issues}, abstract = {© 2017 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Despite that small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) have been, and continue to be, a central part of the history of Europe, these places have largely been neglected by urban research. The ESPON TOWN project, on which this Special Issue builds, sought to redress this neglect performing a comparative analysis of their position and role across Europe. In this introductory paper we discuss some of the theoretical and methodological challenges when it came to identifying, studying and analysing SMSTs and the theoretical framework developed to inform our understanding of SMSTs. In particular, three themes are discussed. The first one is about the ontological problem of defining a town. Administrative, morphological and functional perspectives are considered. The second one reflects on a wide array of interpretative approaches about the relationship between towns and their regional context. The third one is about the thematic and multi-scalar perspectives that can characterise the policy approach to towns.}, doi = {10.1111/tesg.12252}, eissn = {1467-9663}, issn = {0040-747X}, issue = {4}, journal = {Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie}, note = {Comments and Suggestions : This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Atkinson, R., Servillo, L. and Hamdouch, A.-I. (2016) Small and medium-sized town in Europe: Conceptual, methodological and policy issues. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. ISSN 0040-747X Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28957, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12252. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.}, pages = {365-379}, publicationstatus = {Published}, publisher = {Wiley}, url = {https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/880409}, volume = {108}, keyword = {Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, small and medium sized towns, Europe, concepts, methodologies, policies}, year = {2017}, author = {Atkinson, Rob and Servillo, Loris and Hamdouch, Abdel-Illah} }