Retail Policies in Southern European Context

The changes that occurred in the evolution of the retail sector due to many factors (out-of-town locations, e-commerce, retail formats resulting from new lifestyles and consumption) in Southern European countries have intertwined with urban changes in somewhat different ways with respect to other parts of Europe. Southern Europe thus appears a particularly interesting context for analysing the mediating role played by retail policies in the evolution of urban-commercial systems, in the interface between the actors’ agency and the place. As has been pointed out by analysing retail planning in Western Europe, even at the scale of Southern Europe, although the objectives of the policies implemented are similar, the instruments applied are different and dependent on many factors. Our literature review will focus on retail planning policies implemented in Italy as representative of a Southern European country, with the aim of developing a reflection on the potentialities and the critical issues that these policies bring out to urban changes and to city regeneration processes. Starting from the assumption that regulations and planning systems contribute significantly to the understanding of the differences in urban retail structure of diverse countries, above all in some of their cities, some examples drawn from other countries of Southern Europe will contribute to help broaden the look at policies and practices intended as results of socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts different from the dominant ones, both within the scientific literature and in the popular publishing.