Sgambati, Sabrina (2023) Territorial competitiveness as a pre-requisite for urban development. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

Since the 1990s’, the scientific debate on competitiveness as a fundamental characteristic for the development of cities and territories has evolved due to phenomena such as globalisation, digitalization, and the acceleration of urbanisation. In light of the numerous challenges cities are called to face in the years to come – such as climate change, the management of migratory flows, growing demand for travel, increasing vulnerabilities, etc. – the role of cities in international competition is destined to change once again: the long-term impact of these phenomena is inevitable, and can represent both a threat and an opportunity for the systems involved, to the extent that they are able to renew their development in a competitive key. In this context, this Ph.D. work considers urban competitiveness as the ability of an urban system: (i) to increase the intensity and quality of the relationships it is able to establish with other systems; (ii) to attract investments, activities, people, and talents, by virtue of its vocations and assets; (iii) to self-organise and adapt to the effects of external stresses to increase its competitive level. The COVID-19 emergency confirmed that the success of territories in international competition no longer depends exclusively on the pursuit of economic advantage, but also, and above all, on the ability to develop resilient and responsive behaviour in adverse conditions, turning challenges into opportunities. In line with this view, the European Union has approved the Next Generation EU (NGEU) program, which envisages investments and reforms to increase territorial competitiveness by accelerating the ecological and digital transition, achieving greater social and economic equity, and overcoming existing territorial gaps. Given these premises, the purpose of this Ph.D. work is to examine, in quantitative and operational terms, the role of territorial competitiveness in the development of an urban area that presents its connotations and opportunities for growth (susceptibilities), also in light of the objectives and resources of the NGEU program. The research work had, firstly, the objective of identifying and deepening the existing relationship between urban phenomena and competitive processes, at three different urban scales (metropolitan area, urban perimeter, sub-municipal dimension). Secondly, it aimed to develop a paradigm to define, with a quantitative approach, the relationship between urban characteristics and territorial competition, especially in the period of the implementation of the NGEU. The final objective is to elaborate an interpretative model that, in different contexts and at different scales, allows to identify suitable actions and interventions to increase urban competitiveness. To this end, by drawing on consolidated scientific literature, deepened through bibliometric analyses, this Ph.D. thesis proposes a revised method (based on multivariate statistical analysis, composite indexes confrontations, and GIS applications) to evaluate competitiveness and susceptibilities of urban areas. Three case studies were chosen to test the method and verify its replicability in different contexts and at different scales, specifically: the 14 Italian metropolitan areas; the municipalities within the larger metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon, in Portugal; and the districts embedded in the perimeter of the city of Naples, in Italy. These case studies, in addition to being grounding tests for the method proposed, provide relevant insights for the development and management of tailored strategies to increase urban competitiveness. The results and with them the originality of the work consist of studying competitiveness on two different dimensions (susceptibilities vs. competitiveness), considering three different territorial scales, and introducing, for the first time in the scientific literature, the sub-municipal scale. The NGEU contextualization constituted another element of originality and provided the opportunity to verify the applicability of the method to a real case, and, from a policy perspective, reveal disparities or alignments between the resources allocated and the actual competitive potentials of urban areas.

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