The Inner Peripheries’ concept is a quite new and sometime misinterpreted theme in science and policy arenas. The Inner Peripheries have been recently explored in several European projects which highlighted complex territorial characteristics and unbalanced territorial processes all around Europe. Indeed, Inner Peripheries are mainly characterised by peripherality and marginality conditions, low economic potential, poor access to Services of General Interest (SGIs) and lack of relational proximity. These features lead to reduced quality of life, demographic decline and population ageing. According to the ESPON project PROFECY’s main findings, the Inner Peripheries spread over the 45% of the European territory, partially overlapping territories which may access to territorial support schemes, such as Lagging Regions and Less Favoured Areas. Theoretically, this imply that Inner Peripheries may obtain funds from the Cohesion and Rural Development Policy, respectively. The Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas is one of the first attempt in Europe to deal with Inner Peripheries issues, mainly focusing on the critical role of SGIs and the implementation of Cohesion Policy funds. According to the above mentioned issues, this research aims to i) disentangle the Inner Peripheries concept and related European Policies linkages through a structured review; ii) create an indicators’ set linked with Rural Development Priorities (as the completion of the Cohesion Policy) and based on socio-economic and environmental characteristics of Inner Peripheries in Italy to test the progresses of these areas towards rural development; iii) analyse the main territorial characteristics of a Spanish case study, suggesting sustainable development strategy pathways following the “Rural Cohesion Policy” framework; iv) provide critical insights into potential regional development actions and policy to assess and monitor Inner Peripheries’ characteristics and to address specificities of land use, implementing integrated policy schemes. In the first place, the main findings shown the complexity of framing Inner Peripheries within the research and policy debates, highlighting poor linkages between Inner Peripheries and Cohesion and Rural Development Policies in the Academia debate. On this basis, the effort to explore Inner Peripheries rural needs, building an indicators’ set, meets the poor research attempts dealt so far to analyse rural development in the Inner Peripheries context. The indicators’ set robustly described the current territorial potentialities and limitations of the Inner Peripheries to cope with rural development (e.g. lack of farms’ competitiveness and connectivity), and could be useful to support future planning and policy interventions. Moreover, future sustainable development strategies in Inner Peripheries have to foster the territorial cohesion, avoiding urban-rural inequalities and the depopulation issue, as well as use the territorial resources (e.g. agricultural and forest lands), and simultaneously improving and promoting the environment and landscape. Finally, this research points out that Inner Peripheries should become a European Priority, addressing fine scaled related issues as relevant spaces to establish more efficient territorial strategies based on land use specificities and using the European Integrated Territorial Investments tools, following the Rural Cohesion Policy framework.
Il concetto di Inner Peripheries è un tema recente e talvolta mal interpretato in ambito scientifico e politico. Le Inner Peripheries sono state recentemente studiate da numerosi Progetti Europei che hanno messo in evidenza caratteristiche territoriali complesse e squilibri nei processi territoriali in tutta Europa. Le Inner Peripheries sono principalmente caratterizzate da condizioni di perifericità e marginalità, da un basso potenziale economico, da uno scarso accesso ai Servizi di Interesse Generale e dalla mancanza di prossimità relazionale. Queste caratteristiche riducono la qualità della vita e incentivano lo spopolamento. Secondo i risultati del progetto ESPON PROFECY, le Inner Peripheries coprono circa il 45% del territorio Europeo, sovrapponendosi parzialmente a territori che possono accedere a schemi europei di supporto territoriale, come le Regioni in ritardo di sviluppo e le aree svantaggiate. Teoricamente, ciò implica che le Inner Peripheries possano ottenere fondi dalla Politica di Coesione e di Sviluppo Rurale. La Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne è uno dei primi esempi in Europa che affronta i problemi delle Inner Peripheries, concentrandosi principalmente sul ruolo critico dei servizi di interesse generale e sulla Politica di Coesione. In base alle questioni sopra menzionate, la ricerca mira a i) chiarire il concetto di Inner Peripheries e i relativi collegamenti delle Politiche Europee attraverso una revisione strutturata; ii) creare un set di indicatori collegato alle Priorità di Sviluppo Rurale (a completamento quindi della Politica di Coesione), basato sulle caratteristiche socioeconomiche e ambientali delle Inner Peripheries in Italia, al fine di testare i progressi di queste aree verso lo Sviluppo Rurale; iii) analizzare le principali caratteristiche di un caso studio spagnolo e suggerire strategie di sviluppo sostenibile, seguendo il principio della "Politica di Coesione Rurale"; iv) ipotizzare azioni e politiche di sviluppo regionale per valutare e monitorare le caratteristiche delle Inner Peripheries sulla base delle specificità dell'uso del suolo, oltre ad attuare schemi politici integrati che promuovano uno sviluppo equilibrato. I risultati principali hanno evidenziato la complessità nell’inquadrare le Inner Peripheries nei dibattiti scientifico-politici, evidenziando scarsi collegamenti tra queste e le Politiche di Coesione e Sviluppo Rurale. Lo sforzo quindi di esplorare le esigenze rurali delle Inner Peripheries costruendo un insieme di indicatori, soddisfa gli attuali e limitati tentativi della ricerca. Il set di indicatori creato, descrive in modo robusto le attuali potenzialità e i limiti delle Inner Peripheries (ad es. mancanza di competitività e connettività delle aziende agricole) e potrebbe essere utile per futuri interventi politico-pianificatori. Inoltre, le future strategie di sviluppo sostenibile devono favorire la coesione territoriale, evitare le disuguaglianze urbano-rurali e lo spopolamento, nonché utilizzare le risorse territoriali (ad es. terreni agricoli e forestali) promuovendo le risorse ambientali e paesistiche. Infine, la presente ricerca sottolinea che le Inner Peripheries dovrebbero diventare una Priorità Europea, in quanto spazi pertinenti per stabilire strategie territoriali più efficienti, basate sulle specificità dell'uso del suolo, utilizzando gli strumenti europei per gli investimenti territoriali integrati e seguendo il quadro della Politica di Coesione Rurale.
Inner Peripheries spread over rural Europe: from territorial needs to the European Policy debate
DE TONI, Andrea
2020-05-15
Abstract
The Inner Peripheries’ concept is a quite new and sometime misinterpreted theme in science and policy arenas. The Inner Peripheries have been recently explored in several European projects which highlighted complex territorial characteristics and unbalanced territorial processes all around Europe. Indeed, Inner Peripheries are mainly characterised by peripherality and marginality conditions, low economic potential, poor access to Services of General Interest (SGIs) and lack of relational proximity. These features lead to reduced quality of life, demographic decline and population ageing. According to the ESPON project PROFECY’s main findings, the Inner Peripheries spread over the 45% of the European territory, partially overlapping territories which may access to territorial support schemes, such as Lagging Regions and Less Favoured Areas. Theoretically, this imply that Inner Peripheries may obtain funds from the Cohesion and Rural Development Policy, respectively. The Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas is one of the first attempt in Europe to deal with Inner Peripheries issues, mainly focusing on the critical role of SGIs and the implementation of Cohesion Policy funds. According to the above mentioned issues, this research aims to i) disentangle the Inner Peripheries concept and related European Policies linkages through a structured review; ii) create an indicators’ set linked with Rural Development Priorities (as the completion of the Cohesion Policy) and based on socio-economic and environmental characteristics of Inner Peripheries in Italy to test the progresses of these areas towards rural development; iii) analyse the main territorial characteristics of a Spanish case study, suggesting sustainable development strategy pathways following the “Rural Cohesion Policy” framework; iv) provide critical insights into potential regional development actions and policy to assess and monitor Inner Peripheries’ characteristics and to address specificities of land use, implementing integrated policy schemes. In the first place, the main findings shown the complexity of framing Inner Peripheries within the research and policy debates, highlighting poor linkages between Inner Peripheries and Cohesion and Rural Development Policies in the Academia debate. On this basis, the effort to explore Inner Peripheries rural needs, building an indicators’ set, meets the poor research attempts dealt so far to analyse rural development in the Inner Peripheries context. The indicators’ set robustly described the current territorial potentialities and limitations of the Inner Peripheries to cope with rural development (e.g. lack of farms’ competitiveness and connectivity), and could be useful to support future planning and policy interventions. Moreover, future sustainable development strategies in Inner Peripheries have to foster the territorial cohesion, avoiding urban-rural inequalities and the depopulation issue, as well as use the territorial resources (e.g. agricultural and forest lands), and simultaneously improving and promoting the environment and landscape. Finally, this research points out that Inner Peripheries should become a European Priority, addressing fine scaled related issues as relevant spaces to establish more efficient territorial strategies based on land use specificities and using the European Integrated Territorial Investments tools, following the Rural Cohesion Policy framework.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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