Crisis and urban shrinkage from an Italian perspective

The depth, duration, and global reach of the recent economic crisis, the severity of its manifold impacts on territories and societies, and the various implications of applied austerity measures have questioned existing institutional and decision- making structures, regulatory arrangements, and pre-crisis development models. The serious social, economic, and spatial challenges, faced by cities and regions today, require rethinking of urban policies. This chapter discusses the concept of urban shrinkage from an analytical per- spective, a concept widely addressed in international debates but much less so in Italy, bearing in mind the spatial trends seen in the country.