After a time of prolonged neglectfulness from scholarly production, it is just recently (in the last ten years) that Rome became the object of a number of researches and publications. These are focused on to specific aspects of, or more generally dedicated to, its socio-economic, cultural and political environment, and the long-lasting crisis affecting the capital city of Italy. Nevertheless, the contributions able to offer a broad and complex explanation of the actual condition of the city are just few. The less developed field concerns urban economy: the economic structure of the city, and its spatial and governance implications.
Aim of this research proposal is to inquire spatial and public policies implications of the socio-economic structure and dynamics of Rome through an innovative, interdisciplinary, integrated approach. It will be based on collaboration and scientific exchange between different disciplinary research groups (whose collaboration capacity has been already tested), related to the fields of urban and territorial planning, economic geography and political sociology. The research will cover a major knowledge gap, providing an important contribution relevant to the general public and addressed to enhance decision- and policy-making. These objectives will be reached also through a national and international comparative analysis with other major cities (starting with Milan), which implies also a contextualization at the metropolitan and regional scale.
In order to more precisely bound the scope of the research, it will focus particularly on: the spatial organization of the production and services system; role, scope and potential of productive poles; relations between the public and private sectors in economic development agendas and urban transformations; the role of rent (even in its most recent declinations) and of accessibility and mobility networks in urban development; the role of `marginal economies¿ and their features.
