Territorial governance and Strategic planning

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Excellent

The Research Group is developing a mature experience and production in the field of strategic planning and territorial governance. The staff, coming from different research fields and experiences (Policy analysis, Urban and Territorial Planning, Geography, Transportation Planning, Environmental Planning) shares a general interest in the exploration of processes of territorial transformations affecting Italian territories and the way in which this is producing new demands in the field of urban and territorial planning. In the last decade, powerful processes of change in economics, politics, society at large, are restructuring traditional forms of urbanisation, producing something which goes far beyond city and territory as we have got used to know and treat them (both as spatial and social facts). This happens in small and big cities which constitute the historical heritage of our country, but more specifically, within large urban regions where the traditional idea and reference to the city seems to be disarticulating and re-articulating throughout forms of growing fragmentation. New uses of space are not only reinventing the traditional settling principles and forms of production of space; they are also stressing institutions in charge for the government of them and the frames for action (and tools) they are used to treat urban and territorial facts with (plans and urban and territorial policies). Both on a theorical perspective, both on the base of a dialogue with local institutions interested in collaborating with Universities to treat wicked problems in large urban areas (exploded mobility, environmental pollution, fragmentation of powers, social polarisation, problems of competitiveness) the Research Group recognises the necessity of providing new descriptions of these processes and the territories they are producing; as well as, new forms of planning, policies, and territorial governance. In particular, the Research Group has been involved in the last four years in developing processes of strategic planning at different territorial scales, all interpreted not as professional consulting activities, rather as those special “interplay(s) between thought and action” (Dewey), theory and empirical work, which Universities have the possibility to act within in order to contribute to the development of the discipline. Strategic planning is therefore seen as a field of experimentation. Dealing with evaluative research of the growing number of forms of strategic planning throughout European cities, as well as with the wide disciplinary theorical production on this issue, the Research Group aims at probing forms of strategic planning in so far it shows the capacity of providing: - new descriptions of on-going transformations and visions able to orient the policies, where the production (and exchange) of knowledge is a central and strategic issue at stake; 2 1 - innovative governance forms and culture, promoting, in a logic of enabling, governance arrangements, policy arenas, networks of actors able to deal with the plurality and the intelligence of democracy. This in relation both to the challenges of small-medium size cities and territorial systems (the Third Italy, the post-industrial North, the objective 2 South), both to those produced by great metropolitan areas. Starting from this perspective the Research Group is promoting and contributing to a wide disciplinary debate presenting its work and achievements to the national and international community. In particular in the last decade it has gained a leading role both at the national level, where its theorical reflection and its field experiences are considered leading ones and best practices, and in the international circle, where they are considered particularly relevant and innovative. The research hypothesis and interpretations developed by the Research group have been considered as particularly stimulating by the major scholars in the field (P.Healey, L.Albrechts, K.Kunzmann, J. Hilliar, P. Le Galès, F. Moulaert, H. Heinelt, U. Matthiessen, R. Atkinson, R. Hambleton). Thanks to this the Research Group has been invited to present its work in most relevant European and international Universities, to publish on major international journals and to take part in EU funded leading research experiences. The European dimension, is in general relevant, for the research perspective adopted by the group: the problems of Italian cities and territories are always regarded at the light of inputs provided by the process of construction of a EU spatial perspective. Among the Research Group, there are experts dealing with different issues: - new social and economical models, with emerging contradictions among the issue of competitivity and cohesion; - phenomena of environmental pollution linked with inefficiency in terms of mobility and unsustainable settling and development patterns;. - political and institutional fragmentation, new forms of governance and production of public goods; - a governance approach to the problems of National University System.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione (DIAP)

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Alessandro Balducci
Luigi Mazza
Bruno Dente
Associate Professors
Gabriele Pasqui
Paola Pucci
Arturo Lanzani
G. Gaetani
Assistant Professors
Matteo Bolocan Goldstein
Paolo Pileri
Stefano Moroni
Carolina Pacchi