Centre and Periphery: the Marriage of Two Minds

The article takes up the problem of the centre/periphery concept as it is encountered in social science; specifically in the theories of Johan Galtung, Stein Rokkan, Andre Gunder Frank and Jon Naust dalslid. The author in analysing the theories of Galtung and Gun der Frank finds that the problem of uniting geographic and socio- economic space is not solved, because centre and periphery are seen as points on a 'flow diagram'. Rokkan's more modest theory suffers from the separation of form and content. From this cri tique the author develops, through a reformulation of Naustdalslid's thesis a concept of centre and periphery based on modes of produc tion, linked by an economic integration mode derived from Polanyi.