Metropolitan growth in Europe has resulted in drastic changes of urban forms, socio-spatial structures and land-use patterns due to sequential processes of urbanization, suburbanization and re-urbanization. To assess latent shifts from mono-centric models towards more disarticulated and decentralized settlement configurations, the present study evaluates spatio-temporal patterns of growth between the 1920s and the 2010s in three Mediterranean cities with different structure and functions (Barcelona: compact and moderately polycentric; Rome: dispersed, medium-density; Athens: mono-centric, hyper-compact). To identify and characterize long-term urban transformations, an original approach was illustrated in this study, based on a multivariate analysis of 13 indicators resulting from descriptive statistics and linear regression modeling the relationship between population density and distance from inner cities. The empirical results of this study indicate that Barcelona, Rome and Athens have experienced different urbanization cycles, characterized by a (more or less) concentrated distribution of population along urban gradients. Despite similarities in demographic dynamics and planning practices, these processes have determined (i) a mostly centralized growth in Barcelona, (ii) a relatively dispersed and discontinuous spatial structure in Rome, and (iii) a steep decline of population density with the distance from downtown Athens. Compact urban expansion, population decline and urban de-concentration were finally assessed using the analytical approach proposed in this study.peri-urban landscapes [13]. Metropolitan areas in Europe have undergone changes in both structure and functions reflecting sequential cycles of compact and dispersed urbanization [14][15][16].The inherent differences in urbanization patterns and processes across countries make the identification of spatio-temporal dynamics of urban change progressively more difficult when considering the effects and consequences of exurban development [17][18][19][20]. Based on the intrinsic nature of societies and economic systems, recent transformations from mono-centric to polycentric structures have attracted rising attention among the social sciences [21][22][23][24]. The identification of mono-centric and polycentric patterns of growth has benefited from a broad range of approaches derived from different disciplines [5,[25][26][27]. Being an explicit target of the European Spatial Development Perspective [28], polycentrism in Europe has influenced forms of human settlements and socio-spatial structures altering the short-and medium-term dynamics of economic activity [29][30][31][32].Until the early 1990s, large metropolitan areas in Mediterranean Europe have been frequently considered as regions with structurally compact urban forms and functionally monocentric spatial organizations [33][34][35]. Leontidou [36] highlighted similarities in the individual trajectories of urban growth, leading to convergent socio-spatial profiles and homogeneous economic struc...
In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the measurement of well-being of individuals and societies. Influenced by the “beyond GDP” initiative, in 2012 the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and the National Council for Economics and Labour launched the Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (BES, from the Italian acronym of “Benessere Equo e Sostenibile”) project, a set of 134 indicators aimed at capturing the Italian well-being. Lately, the debate on how to measure the well-being moved from the national level to the local one. Following this new trend, ISTAT introduced a set of 88 indicators for the local well-being (at NUTS3 level), the so called “Provinces’ BES”. Based on this project, aim of the paper is to provide an exploratory analysis for detecting groups of Italian provinces that share similar well-being profiles. In particular, we first apply a factor analysis with the aim to reduce the high number of indicators and, grounded on these results, we then create groups of the Italian provinces, applying the cluster analysis, in order to find similarity among them. Finally, based on the result of the factor analysis, for each domain and for each Italian province, we construct a composite indicator that is a linear combination of the estimated factor scores, with weights based on the Gini index of concentration
As a part of the international debate on Beyond the GDP, this paper describes the temporal trend of the multidimensional well-being of the Italians from 1861 to 2011. Building on the CNEL and ISTAT s Eq i able and S s ainable Well-being (Benessere Equo e Sostenibile, BES) project, the paper selects 41 indicators that are grouped into 8 dimensions characterizing the most important aspects of everyday life: health, education, work, economic well-being, political participation, security, environment and research and development. In order to synthesize the information provided by this large set of indicators, a composite index for each dimension is tracked over the time span of 150 years.The main contributions of this paper consist in providing an analysis of the Italian BES over such a long period. As a result, the eight domains exhibit temporal tendencies that are different from the one of economic well-being. In particular, health, education, work and political participation show a pattern increasing over time (analogously to economic well-being), although at different growth rates, while an overall declining path emerges for the domains of security, environment and research and development. Moreover, we identify four main periods of the Italian history (before WWI, the Fascist period, the years from 1950 to 1990 and the most recent period) each characterized by different relations among the well-being domains.
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