Small-scale growth centres in remote rural regions: the case of Alpine Switzerland

Concern over the continuing interregional disparity in levels of development within Switzerland, where the relative growth of the larger urban settlements contrasts sharply with the backwardness of the rural periphery, has prompted the creation of a new investment fund to aid the mountain region. The fund is intended to operate through a new and highly decentralized planning system. A network of small-scale growth centres has been chosen as the major spatial component in development planning for the uplands. Analysis of socioeconomic change within an Alpine planning region for the period 1970–1980 indicates that, although the fund is important in terms of social welfare provision, it has not led to a relative improvement in the economic structure of the most remote areas. The reasons for these observations are discussed.