Governance and territorialization: local welfare in Italy between fragmentation and innovation

Abstract

Briefly put, the territorialization is a puzzle. The concept covers two principal phenomena: the process of territorial reorganization which has affected different levels of public action and their relations; the trend of taking the territory as the reference point for policies and interventions. These phenomena are at the same time distinct but linked, and share the same consequences, mobilizing new actors / arenas and politicizing quite a wide range of issues. The aim of the paper is twofold: to outline an analytical scheme regarding the territory as the medium of the present relationship between citizenship and governance; to focus on problems and opportunities that are triggered by local welfare in Italy.