EU's urban policy from a Southern perspective: the case of Palermo

Abstract

For many European cities the EU's structural funds have led to a radical innovation in approaching urban policy at different scales. For many others, particularly within the less developed regions, they also have resulted in a unique financial opportunity to carry out large infrastructural interventions as well as complex regeneration projects.In this context, this paper provides a critical analysis of the evolution of urban policy in the city of Palermo, the fifth Italian city by demographic size and capital of one of the largest less developed region of the European Union. Through the analysis of various initiatives carried out over the last two decades - from the Urban Initiative in the nineties to the projects under implementation within the Urban Agenda 2020 - the work[GRAPHICS]aims to understand their local effects from different perspectives and, at the same time, the way in which the different priorities of the European urban agenda have been embedded within the local political discourse.