Dove finisce la città? : Proposta di una classificazione dei comuni lombardi sulla base della morfologia sociale e delle funzioni

A conceptual framework for the study of territories and populations should at least include indicators of geographical morphology and indicators of social morphology. The latter, in some cases, partially redraw territorial boundaries on the basis of the functions insisting on territories and catch "transition" areas (periurbans, for instance) according to a non-conventional perspective that could also partly justify the mis-matching between some macro-areas and some adopted territorial policies. With respect to such considerations, this work introduces a classification of the 1544 municipalities of Lombardy region based on their social dimension, since nowadays the Regional rural program largely relies on purely geographical morphology. This study implements a cluster analysis based on previously estimated latent factors (urbanity, socio-economic profile, services, mobility) and identifies 4 main territorial systems based upon functions.