SPATIAL TRENDS OF TOWNS IN EUROPE: THE PERFORMANCE OF REGIONS WITH LOW DEGREE OF URBANISATION LORIS SERVILLO* & ANTONIO PAOLO RUSSO** * KU Leuven, Department of Architecture, Planning & Development research group, Leuven, Belgium. E-mail: loris.servillo@asro.kuleuven.be ** University Rovira i Virgili, Research Group ‘Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies’, Tarragona, Spain. E-mail: antonio.russo@urv.cat Received: January 2015; accepted September 2016 ABSTRACT The paper contributes to the understanding of socio-spatial trends and urban systems in Europe, with a specific focus on smaller settlements. First, a morphological delimitation of urban settlements as geographical base is used to identify the different settlement structures that characterise regions across Europe. Secondly, an analysis of population and GDP performances of NUTS 3 regions for the 29 countries of the European space (growth rates in 2001--2011) provides evidence of the variety of territorial phenomena that characterise smaller- settlement regions across Europe. Finally, the paper highlights the diversity and complexity of urbanisation structures in Europe and how general trends observed at larger scale are articulated locally according to prevailing structures of urbanisation. It shows the character of ‘embeddedness’ of smaller settlements within urban systems and territorial structures and how the socio-economic performances of smaller-settlement regions are defined by a combination of macro trends, national contextualisation, local dynamics and regional path dependency. Key words: spatial pattern, town, Europe, territorial dynamic, ESPON INTRODUCTION Towns, smaller urban areas and villages have always had a central part in the territorial his- tory of Europe. The rich and complex patch- work of inter-linked urban systems configures an ‘urban mosaic’ which is probably the most characteristic feature of the European space (Bagnasco 2000; Le Gale `s & Therborn 2010). However, dominant epistemological paradigms and pressing policy agendas have left this territorial dimension relatively unex- plored, in favour a stronger focus on metro- politan areas – the powerhouses of the European economy – and on rural regions as ‘problematic’ areas of marginalisation. At a time when the ‘hype of metropolitanisation’ is critiqued by several authors (Bell & Jayne 2009; Brenner & Schmid 2014; Davidson & Iveson 2015), this paper intends to redress the academic (and policy) interest for small and medium towns, examining their role in regional development. Accepting the challenge launched by Bell and Jayne (2009) of ‘thinking big about think- ing small’, the paper reflects on socio-spatial trends and urban systems with a specific focus on smaller settlements at the EU scale. Based on (part of) the multi-level analysis performed within the ESPON TOWN project (Servillo et al. 2014), the paper specifically addresses the per- formance of regions characterised by a prevail- ing presence of smaller settlements, using two simple indicators that allow comparison across Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2017, DOI:10.1111/tesg.12250, Vol. 00, No. 00, pp. 00–00. V C 2017 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG