Europeanization of Spatial Planning through Discourse and Practice in Italy

Abstract

Characterized by a prescriptive but often ineffective “urbanism” tradition, spatial planning practice in Italy has changed over the last two decades under the influence of the EU territorial governance agenda. Whereas some experiences have shown that more “performative” spatial development policies are possible, most planning practices continue to be largely based on a “conformative” idea of spatial planning. Surveying the role of actors and epistemic communities in the framework of recent spatial planning changes in Italy, this paper argues that an almost spontaneous and heterogeneous impact of the EU territorial governance agenda on domestic practices occurred initially but could not take root because of the resilience of professional culture. The Europeanization of spatial planning in Italy has progressively lost momentum and there is little evidence to date of any wholesale reform of the Italian spatial planning system.