ALTERNATIVE READINGS OF SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION - THE RURAL VERSUS THE LOCAL ECONOMY APPROACH IN ITALY

This paper discusses spatial differentiation in Italian economic development and argues that the rural/urban approach provides results which are difficult to interpret, while the local economy approach, which considers territorial systems in its articulation of cities of different sizes with a diversified country-side, explains the present logic of spatial differentiation. In the first section, an outline of the peculiar characteristics of Italian development is given, bringing forth the main implications for rural areas and regions. Recent trends in population and employment indicate that large cities have been losing population and employment, while medium/small centres have remained stable or gained in both respects; service activities have had the most impressive increase, even in rural areas. These trends are then discussed as an indication of a 'rural renaissance' or as a system of competing local economies. In the final section, the rural category of analysis is evaluated in the French and Italian experience against social and economic processes under way and in its implications for the new rural policy of the EEC. The conclusion stresses the need for a diversified rural area concept which breaks away from the obsolete rural/urban dichotomy.