In 2015 Saskia Sassen published an article in ‘The Guardian' pointing on the direct relationship between the implementation of large – or gigantic – urban regeneration projects and the de-urbanisation of city. This lecture note questions the empirical relevance of discussing the dynamics...

Italian Abstract: Una spiegazione condivisa dell'arretratezza economica di Napoli – la metropoli europea con i disequilibri economici, ambientali e socialii e spaziali più profondi – non riesce a consolidarsi in Italia. Di conseguenza, la domanda “Quali politiche di sviluppo per...

European cities' growth rates were strikingly different in the decades 1950-1990, during the long phase of macro-economic expansion and controlled institutional evolution ensured by the construction of the European. To the extent that most cities were anyway following a development trajectory...

In the next two decades Italian cities will have to address the implementation of a very complex urban agenda, whose main themes are already well-defined. In order to meet the overarching objectives of environmental sustainability and social cohesion – now prominent in the Italian development...

Under the pressure of a complex configuration of interdependent factors – economic, demographic, technological, institutional and cultural – Italian cities are experiencing profound structural changes. The heterogeneity of the Italian urban system makes this process highly place-specific....

Scientists, analysts (and reporters) who ‘have gone out and looked around' in Italy may easily share the judgement that the settlement patterns of the Italian cities are ‘deeply negative states of the world' according to the ‘values' that we claim to profess in Italy and Europe. But the...

The paper argues that the way in which social scientists and policy-makers have conceptualised the Italian territory has significantly changed since the 1950s as a consequence of methodological shifts and attempts to capture the changing territorial organisation of the economy. In retrospect,...

In the paper a critical appraisal of a recent book by Arnaldo Bagnasco, Giuseppe Berta e Angelo Pichierri -– Chi ha fermato Torino. Una metafora per l’Italia (Torino: Einaudi 2020) – is conducted. The focus is on the importance of considering the ‘resistance’ of a system (city), and...

Italian Abstract: Per la sua dimensione e la gravità dei suoi disequilibri, Napoli è la maggiore area di crisi urbana in Europa. Il lavoro sottolinea l'importanza di Napoli e della sua area metropolitana, a discute i passi necessari per trasformare Napoli in una "città strategica", con la...