The main goal of this paper is to propose a sound interpretative
and policy framework for ‘Inner Peripheries’ at the EU level. Its
ambition is to bridge conceptual approaches to peripherality with
the policy objectives set by key documents such as the Territorial
Agenda 2020 and other recent reports on economic, social and
territorial cohesion. An integrated multi-scalar approach,
grounded on the notion of spatial disparity, is therefore connected
with a ‘place-based’ approach to policy design.
The breakthrough experience of the Italian programme on Inner
Areas is an opportunity to broaden the reflection on inner
peripheries and policies that are most apt to reconnect them. A
more comprehensive analytical framework is proposed here, which
looks at the foundational economy, spatial justice and territorial
cohesion. The framework deals with both the ‘condition’ of
peripherality and the ‘process’ by which endogenous and
exogenous drivers determine the marginalisation of specific
territories. Such tenets are fleshed out in the development of an
original approach bridging theory and practice, analysis and
policy, crucially assuming multi-scale governance design as the
enabling framework for greater coherence between top-down and
community-led initiatives.
