Territori di progetto nella programmazione regionale

Over the two last decades, the regional policies have increasingly met the need to foster the economic competitiveness of regional and local economies, in order to face globalisation challenges. However, these actions have privileged the direct competition, oriented to catch investment and consumption flows by improving the regional/local attractiveness, than the indirect one, which is based on the social and institutional interplay involving the regional/local actors. The increasing relevance of the indirect competition brings back on stage the public sector, namely the various levels of territorial government. Yet, the most successful experiences in Europe demonstrate that this renaissance of the public guide in spatial policies is intimately linked to the involvement of local systems of actors and implies a ‘constructed’ idea of territory. This paper seeks to enlighten some features of this process, introducing the concept of multilevel governance and place-based policies as the basic building blocks of the regional policies.