Back to a future civilization: cities and countryside in the ‘Third Italy’

In the last three decades of the twentieth century, the relationship between the city and rural areas in the Centre/North-East of Italy was a much-debated issue particularly with regard to the existence of a macroregion (the ‘Third Italy’) where a new model of economic development was flourishing. Social scientists and politicians stressed the specific territorial organization of the phenomenon, marked by finely integrated urban and rural environments. Even today, this interconnection is sometimes considered in public discourse not only as characteristic of a national Italian identity, but also as a model for more sustainable social organization.