Modelling of spatial organization and the dichotomy of centre–periphery

One way to understand peripherality is to view it as a characteristic reflecting geographical and spatial organisation. In such case, attributes such as location, population density, infrastructure, etc. feature as primary indicators. A second approach to peripherality places emphasis on the assessment of social and economic indicators, irrespective of location in a geographic sense. The first, geographic or geometric, approach towards peripherality can be more readily depicted by graphic spatial models. This contribution attempts to identify the general patterns of spatial organisation of the core – periphery dichotomy and to capture the graphic depiction of this distribution for the example of Slovakia and Czechia. This effort resulted in the identification of common and different features of the spatial distribution of central and peripheral regions in both countries. The organisational hierarchy and the theoretical core–periphery distribution model have been adopted from the central place theory and from the fractal theory.