Territorial Analysis

The examination of the multifaceted geographical conception of the Mastorochoria in combination with its ‘sociospatial organizations’ and unique cultural components become the ‘heart base’ of the MaNet Project. The economic, cultural and natural dynamics of the Mastorochoria territory are related to such a degree that the existence of the former presupposes the existence of the latter. Rosalind Williams clarifies aptly this dependence by reference to Fernand Braudel’s statement that ‘Cultures…are ways of ordering space just as economies are’, adding that ‘an economic system can organize and produce space, but it cannot by itself organize and produce meaning [which] […] is instead the role of culture’ (2000:47). The MaNet Project is strongly motivated by the need to set strategic proposals for the sustainable and inclusive growth of the Mastorochoria. It acknowledges the catalytic role of local identity and proceeds to its conception principally through the cohesive approach to natural and cultural phenomena (Medeiros 2014; COM 2008).