Search results for "Urban Policy"

Integrated Methods for Establishing the Sustainability of Urban Policies: Applying Ecological Footprint to the Municipal Solid Waste Management

2018

The Ecological Footprint (EF) method is applied here to assess alternative policies regarding the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. This approach arises from two considerations. First, the MSW management certainly requires a great attention by politicians and technicians, due to its importance for effectively administrating and environmentally controlling urban contexts. On the other hand, the EF method, thanks to its holistic structure of analysis, supposedly provides a synthetic and effective measure of the sustainability of waste management systems, so allowing public administrations to prioritizing policies aimed at implementing environmental actions. Here the EF method is used fo…

Governing the Metropolitan Dimension: A Critical Perspective on Institutional Reshaping and Planning Innovation in Italy

2019

As in other European countries, over recent decades the question of metropolitan government has captured political and academic attention in Italy too. The debate has been recently fuelled by a national reform introduced to create 14 metropolitan authorities to provide for new government solutions in the territories of the larger urban areas. Based on literature and empirical observation, this paper presents a critical view of that process by examining the following questions: How do metropolitan areas relate to broader Italian urban policy? How does the reform contribute to a reshaping of multi-level governance through national and local initiatives? And how does institutional reorganisati…

The reshaping of the urban question in Italy

2008

In recent years, the international debate on european cities has increasingly shifted its main focus from economic regeneration to cohesion and governance. After a long period of urban decline there are evidences that some major economic problems in several european cities have been partially solved. On the other hand, the question of a more effective balance between economic issues and social and environmental welfare is becoming crucial to urban competitiveness. In this conceptual framework, the paper critically explores the evolution of urban policy in Italy, paying particular attention to the effects of the European Union’s cohesion policy for the southern regions. Firstly, the paper pr…

Integrated approach and urban regeneration through the EU’s structural funds: lessons from an italian experience

2009

Cities and regional disparities in the European Union: evolving geographies and challenges for Cohesion Policy

2021

Since the nineties, urban areas have assumed a growing importance in EU Cohesion Policy. This process, which is being implemented through various political steps and policy instruments, has led cities to be recognised as key elements in the promotion of balanced development. After decades of planning experiments at different territorial scales, however, the extent to which EU urban policy has contributed to regional development is currently under debate. This paper seeks to describe the evolution of the urban dimension within EU Cohesion Policy, with a focus on the role of cities in those countries and regions experiencing development problems.

Introduction to the special issue

2021

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 …

Urban Change and Regional Development at the Margins of Europe: Evaluating the Effects of the EU Policy

2022

Since the beginning of the 1990s, regions and urban areas have become a primary target of EU Cohesion Policy. For a number of European cities, especially in the less developed regions, this has resulted in a unique opportunity for the implementation of extensive development projects, as well as delivering innovations in urban policy and local governance. Through the detailed observation of planning processes which took place in four European cities – Porto (PT), Malaga (ES), Palermo (IT), and Thessaloniki (EL) – this book explores the different ways that EU intervention can affect the policy process locally, from the regeneration of decayed neighborhoods and the creation of key services for…

Understanding urban policy through the lens of twenty years of cohesion policy: the case of Palermo

2017

For many European cities the EU’s structural funds have led to a radical review of the way of 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. After two decades of experiments, it is worth questioning to which extent the structural funds have impacted on the state of the European cities and whether Europanisation has promoted a real process of innovation in the making of urban policy. With this question on the background, this paper provides a critical analysis of the evolution of ur…

Understanding the EU Urban Agenda from the margins of Europe: the case of Porto

2022

This research focuses on the EU regional policy and presents a critical analysis of its influence on the urban regeneration process in the Portuguese city of Porto. A particular attention was drawn to the city’s historic centre has been facing a diverse range of challenges and been the stage of different urban policies. Among the actions that have been implemented are two area-based interventions linked to the EU Cohesion Policy. The study allowed to put forward a series of consideration regarding the influence of EU initiatives in this southwestern European city and hopefully the insights resulting from it will not only help to understand local effects of EU instruments at the level of imp…

EU's urban policy from a Southern perspective: the case of Palermo

2017

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…