La posizione del Mezzogiorno urbano

In this essay, in conclusion of the first of the two volumes containing the results of the National Research Programme 2004/06 "Actors, networks and strategies in the urban Mezzogiorno" (University of Naples "L'Orientale" - Dept. of Social Sciences, coordinator Lida Viganoni), I develop some considerations on the position of the urban Mezzogiorno facing the Euromediterranean and the global scenarios. The aim is to evaluate the elements useful to define the re-scaling of a macro region (the whole Southern Italy, the “Mezzogiorno”) in geopolitical and geo-economic terms, beyond the rhetoric of a "bridge between Italy and the Mediterranean." We analyze the structure of international trade of the Mezzogiorno and its regions and the recent growth of the international flows towards the Mediterranean Basin. If we compare these data with the European regional planning in the field of transport networks, it shows the possibility of enhancing the position, although peripheral to Europe, of some urban areas of Southern Italy, particularly of that of Naples. At the same time, the possibility of enhancement stresses also the need for a macro-regional governance of these processes, in order to contrast the inevitable fragmentation resulting from a growing competitiveness between territories. About the relationship between geographic location and resources, we make some reflections on changes in urban geography of the South, highlighting the many new factors and the continuing difficulties in the elaboration of development strategies.