Uneven dispersion or adaptive polycentrism? Urban expansion, population dynamics and employment growth in an 'ordinary' city
Compact and mono-centric cities in southern Europe have recently experienced a chaotic expansion, in partial contrast with the spatially-balanced development typical of western European cities. Our study investigates long-term changes (1951-2011) in the spatial structure of Naples - a representative example of compact cities grown through sequential urbanization waves - discussing the weakness of its actual metropolitan organization, considered spatially-unbalanced and with a limited potential to growth.