The relevance of local factors for understanding Italy: explaining territorial differentiation

This chapter focuses on the reasons for the fragmentation, pointing to the late unification and the North/South divide. It presents the research on Third Italy as the most original attempt to use local analysis to explain the emergence of a peculiar model of economic development based on small and medium firms and medium-sized cities. The chapter deals with urban poverty in the three major Italian cities, with a discussion on how spatial distribution and vulnerable groups are shaped by local factors. The recency of political and linguistic unification is a fundamental reason for the relevance of the local dimension in Italian society in terms of cultural identity, social regulation and institutional arrangements. These studies generated a new awareness of the role of local factors in shaping local societies, including economic development, social inclusion, performance of institutions, welfare policies and political and social activism.