The Centre-Periphery Dialectics in Eastern Sicily Retail System. An Exploratory Research

Abstract

This paper aims at scrutinizing from an historical perspective the deep trans-formations shaped by retail spaces and new consumption patterns challenging long-entrenched dichotomies, such as the centre-periphery one. In particular, the exploratory research explores the territorial reconfiguration of the main Eastern Sicily metropol-itan areas, Catania and Messina, from the lens of the retail geography, namely after the diffusion of new suburban retail formats which have completely upset deeply-rooted relations between urban core and suburban rings.