Abstract This paper addresses the issue of the development and cooperation of micro-regions in the context of their cultural potential, which represents a significant, yet in practice often insufficiently and unsystematically utilised, territorial development factor. The topic reflects both the current academic discourse and the needs of applied practice and has a distinctly interdisciplinary character extending across the fields of spatial planning, regional development, cultural policy, and sustainable tourism. Despite the growing interest in this issue, the set of instruments for managing development processes at the micro-regional level remains, in many respects, theoretically and methodologically underdeveloped. The paper is based on research conducted in the Horné Záhorie micro-region (Skalica district) in Slovakia, defined as a geographically and functionally coherent area located between the White Carpathians, the Little Carpathians, and the Morava River, characterised by strong historical, cultural, and cross-border linkages. The aim of the paper is to identify, through an analysis of spatial, socio-cultural, and development processes, the key factors influencing the degree of cooperation among actors within the territory, as well as the ways in which cultural potential is reflected in strategic and planning documents. Based on the synthesis of the findings, recommendations are formulated to improve the effectiveness of development strategies and to strengthen cooperation at the micro-regional level. The generalisation of the identified approaches and diagnostic conclusions creates conditions for their application not only within the Slovak Republic, but also in a broader context of comparable micro-regions within the European Union, particularly in cross-border areas with similar structural characteristics.
Pavel Beták (2026) studied this question.