Polycentrism is today a central keyword in European spatial planning. In this paper it is assumed as a perspective for the analysis of spatial configurations in the geography of innovation. The research analyses the relation between technological potential and hie-rarchical organization of local...

City-marketing and place-branding strategies today often stress ideas and stereotypes of culture and creativity to promote attractive urban images. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze how the creative city is celebrated and displayed in the case of Turin (Torino), Italy. This case...

1. Introducing urban branding : a spectral metaphor -- 2. The evolution of the place branding debate -- 3. Neoliberalism, consumption and the institutional frameworks of city branding -- 4. City branding as a politics of representation : a play with the visible, the invisible and the ghostly...

This paper investigates promotional images in the Metropolitan Area of Helsinki, focusing on the projection, outside national boundaries, of specific "ideas" concerning the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. After introducing the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, presenting its geographical...

This paper analyses the use of the concept of territorial cohesion in policy documents produced by the European Union. It is an idea celebrated in community documents, such as cohesion reports, the Territorial Agenda of the European Union and the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion; after more...

Geographical metaphors such as centre-periphery or First-Second-Third World are widely used to describe the world economic system. This paper discusses the role of metaphors in geographical representations and proposes some guidelines for the analysis and classification. This methodology is then...

Christiania is an autonomous Free Town, born as a squat in 1971, located in the centre of Copenhagen. After 40 years of struggles and negotiations with the Danish institutions in order to survive and to maintain its autonomy, Christiania reached an agreement with the state in 2011. If on the one...

The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/knowledge implications for the contemporary city. On the one hand, smart city policies support new ways of imagining, organising and managing the city and its flows; on the other, they impress a new...