The State of the Art of Planning In Europe: Italy

Abstract

An enquiry on the status of planning in Italy. The role of planning in Italy is now in crisis, and this crisis has been going on for more than a decade. As a consequence, planning practitioners face a hard time when trying to deal with the national political framework and to relate to most important topics, such as commons, public spaces, environmental threats, and so on. In the widespread context of the neoliberal turn, Italy has been experiencing a growing attraction towards everything that is private, and a strong rejection of all that is public. However, planning proficiencies are still requested in those cases where civil society activates bottom-up processes for local transformation projects. These processes often try to fill the gap that is caused by the lack of efficiency in traditional, top-down policies.