Accessibility Challenges in European Rural Regions

In spite of the variety of possible meanings of rural areas and the difficulty in defining and distinguishing them from the urban ones, most rural areas feature structural conditions that have led to their impoverishment and increasing dependence on urban centres where services and opportunities are concentrated. Accessibility challenges in rural regions are directly related to such features and processes. Beyond mobility-centred approaches, a wider perspective is needed to understand and address these challenges, embracing the societal, economic and spatial components and implications of accessibility. This chapter tries to reflect on marginalisation and accessibility issues in rural areas, and proposes some points for reflection that may be adopted by the readers as entry points from which to approach the issues and experiences proposed in this book.