Proceeding from the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2019
The paper focuses on the Italian territories affected by regionalization processes and subject to an institutional reform: the enforcement of Metropolitan Cities in 2014. Regionalization processes have occurred in many European countries in recent decades, also assisted by the European Cohesion Policy. In Italy, regionalized territories have place-specific characteristics and new emerging forms of bottom-up cooperation are taking place.
The rapid urbanization, often accompanied by uncontrolled use of land, occupation of unsafe environments as well as the increased rate of occurrence of climate events are introducing new elements of uncertainty. The idea of certainty or security that was fundamental to risk management in the past collapsed. In this context, the notion of ‘risk society’, introduced by Ulrich Beck in 1992, is considered as a shifting paradigm in world security, where our modern society becomes ever more interdependent and more complex, and consequently more vulnerable to threats and risks.