Verso nuovi sistemi urbani in rete: il riordino territoriale e le aree vaste in Italia

The essay presents the changes introduced by the Italian Law on administrative reorganization (no. 56/2014), within a globalized urban system. Indeed, globalization has accelerated the mobility of people, goods and information
leading to a network of urban systems closely linked at a global scale. Within these urban systems, dualism between a root node, which concentrates population and functions, and the rest of the surrounding area, subordinated to it, is outdated. Abandoning the approach opposing center/periphery, the new model of networked and polycentric city allows to understanding complex contemporary urban dynamics, based on external interdependence and multiplicity of internal centers. In this context, the essay illustrates the application process of the Law on administrative reorganization activated in Italy, presenting as a case study the “Area Vasta” of Bergamo. The latter, after the provincial administrative structure, is experimenting new internal subdivisions – eleven homogeneous areas – in order to give greater representation to municipalities, as well as to support local development process. The contexts of application are several – among them, school is central – and show new possibilities to manage urban space in a reticular and polycentric perspective, even if sometimes they highlight the fragility of a hyper-structured territory because of still existing previous functional compartments.