0000000000307911
AUTHOR
Ignazio Vinci
Exploring the Rural within the Italian local development policy
The countryside has a major role in Italy’s territorial identity and organization. The way agriculture has shaped the Italian territory and society, however, is a very complex historical process, marked by different political and economic purposes. By looking at the national territory under such an evolutionary perspective, and the changing approaches to rural development due to the influence of EU policies, this paper describes the main policy instruments that have been implemented across the Italian regions in recent decades. After this overview, the paper concludes with a critical discussion on the limits and potential of rural areas in the country’s development process.
Design, technology and social innovation: the serious game of traffic O2
Social science and new communication technologies are deeply influencing the transportation domain and new models of urban sustainable development are constantly emerging as new possible solutions. One of the principal reasons is the capability to reach the motivations that foster us to choose one or another urban transportation systems. It is already feasible to develop solutions to implement and root more efficient and sustainable habits in urban transportation. The present exploratory chapter presents the activities conducted by innovation lab PUSH, with the Italian Ministry of Innovation and Research, for the development and the application of the social innovation project “TrafficO2” i…
Introduction to the special issue
The article is the introduction to an Urban Research and Practice special issue conceived with the aim of exploring some of the different ways EU regional policy may have influenced the development process of four Southern European cities, Porto (PT), Malaga (ES), Palermo (IT), and Thessaloniki (GR). The selection of case studies relates to cities at the ‘margins of Europe’ in both the sense of places outside the geographical core of the continent and located in those regions – the ‘less developed regions’ – where EU Cohesion policy has been manifested in significant investment over an extended period of time. For that reason, the special issue also seeks to provide an urban perspective to …
The Reshaping of the City-Port Interface in Palermo: A Case of Successful Urban Governance?
In the last decades, various port cities in western countries have developed policies to make shipping activities more compatible with the urban environment and organization. This paper provides a critical interpretation of the process that is leading to the regeneration of the waterfront area of Palermo, the Italian fifth largest city by population. In a first part of the paper the events and economic factors that have negatively impacted on the city-port spatial relations are outlined. Subsequently, in the light of the new governance relations established between the city and port authorities, the strategy and main interventions of the port masterplan that is currently reshaping the city-…
Reshaping the sea-land interface through sustainable mobility: a project for a greenway in western Sicily
This work illustrates the planning experience, still underway, carried out by five municipalities of western Sicily (Italy) in the preparation of a sustainable urban development strategy in the framework of the EU’s urban agenda 2014-2020. The strategy, whose general objectives are strengthening territorial cohesion and increasing accessibility to local resources, focuses on sustainable mobility corridors in coastal areas as the instruments through which such objectives can be better achieved and reciprocally integrated. After an exploration of the literature, the article provides an analysis of the potential demand for sustainable mobility in the given urban system, an explanation of the c…
EU's urban policy from a Southern perspective: the case of Palermo
For many European cities the EU’s structural funds have led to a radical innovation in approaching urban policy at different scales. For many others, particularly within the less developed regions, they also have resulted in a unique financial opportunity to carry out large infrastructural interventions as well as complex regeneration projects. In this context, this paper provides a critical analysis of the evolution of urban policy in the city of Palermo, the fifth Italian city by demographic size and capital of one of the largest less developed region of the European Union. Through the analysis of various initiatives carried out over the last two decades – from the Urban Initiative in the…
Editorial: Interrogating the design of smart, sustainable, and socially just urban spaces: A look at institutions, places, and values
The article is the Editorial on the Research Topic Interrogating the design of smart, sustainable, and socially just urban spaces: A look at institutions, places, and values, which explore the dynamics between the socio-technological processes – value-based design being foremost among them – through which urban space emerges and takes on meaning. Furthermore, they engage with the question of how institutional design principles shape citizen participation in these processes.
Planning
The chapter seeks to explore the role urban planning can play in the decision-making process within large urban areas. In the first part, the concept of planning is explored through different theoretical perspectives, while in a second section how urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas are viewed in the planning literature are analyzed. In the last sections the paper describes how urban and regional planning has evolved faced with the development issues of large urban areas and some ways to give planning an appropriate role in shaping metropolitan development are suggested.
Editorial
The article is an introduction to a special issue entitled "A spotlight on Italian cities: urban change, governance and planning", which reflects different ways urban questions can arise in the Italian cities and the many directions can be given to urban policy under the impulse of municipalities and local stakeholders.
L’agenda per le città nelle politiche di sviluppo e coesione in Sicilia
L'articolo esamina l’andamento dell’Agenda urbana in Sicilia alla luce delle strategie contenute negli ultimi due cicli di programmazione europea. Gli esiti delle politiche in corso sono analizzati sullo sfondo del carattere peculiare dell’armatura urbana regionale, caratterizzata com’è da un sistema di città diffuso e policentrico, ma anche dal persistere di questioni urbane irrisolte che le fragilità nel governo del territorio non ha aiutato ad affrontare.
Governare la mobilità condivisa nella città con- temporanea: limiti e possibilità per le politiche pubbliche
Il saggio si propone di analizzare alcune conseguenze che la diffusione della mobilità condivisa comporta nella città contemporanea, identificando alcuni nodi per le politiche pubbliche che andrebbero poste in agenda dai policy makers nazionali e locali. Il testo in primis descrive le condizioni che hanno consentito la diffusione della sharing mobility nelle città occidentali, sottolineandone il peculiare rapporto che tali servizi instaurano con l’ambiente costruito rispetto ai sistemi di tra- sporto convenzionali. Successivamente viene offerta una sintetica descrizione dello stato dell’arte della mobilità condivisa nel nostro paese, nel più ampio contesto del cambiamento delle città sul pi…