Urbanities,
Vol. 3
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No 1
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May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
23
announcements to the concrete implementation of the projects leads to symbolic policies that
do not improve the conditions of life of the population.
The discussion that follows addresses the critical role played by the local institutions
and citizens in the process of urban transformation and its impact on the city. The literature
on the topic recognizes that the role of local government in the development of the new urban
space is often direct and forceful. In this perspective, urban governance becomes a collective
action based on cooperation and coordination among many actors, both ‘vertically’ and
‘horizontally’, involving, respectively, multi-layered relationships of governance (at local,
national and European level) and the relations among local actors (Le Galès 2011, Mayntz
1997). Coordination among these vertical and horizontal relationships should lead to a
coherent integration of responsibilities, competences and visions. This is not as
straightforward as it may seem. Scholars have pointed the differences between the ‘old’ and
the ‘new’ way of interpreting the theoretical and practical meaning of governance and of the
attending ‘dilemmas’ (Bevir 2011, Pardo and Prato 2011).
In the case of Naples, the strategic policies for the renewal of the city have not taken
fully into account citizens’ needs and it is unclear who the major beneficiaries are. Naples,
after Rome and Milan, is the third Italian city for number of inhabitants, just over one million
people (three million in the metropolitan area). In the ranking of the Italian cities, Naples is in
the lowest positions for GDP per capita and employment, and in the highest for poverty,
unemployment and criminality. The city is currently in search of a new urban vision capable
of overcoming its decline in recent history. In spite of a continuous supply of proposals, ideas
and projects to make Naples again competitive with other Italian and European cities, the
focus has become increasingly unclear and the economic revival and social development of
the city remains out of sight.
The City government has offered a large number of tools to address the urban
complexity and the backwardness of the economy, but the results of its political and
administrative action have been limited. Also the implementation of the Strategic Plan for the
city, approved in 2004 and thought of as a main tool for supporting the regeneration of
different parts of the urban territory (the old centre, the port and the dismissed industrial
areas), is encountering many difficulties; some projects and activities are still at the beginning
stage, others are at a standstill, due to an impasse affecting the decision-making process and
the bureaucratic choices necessary to implement the plan. In spite of the great potential that
some proposals have to enhance the urban resources, in their implementation they encounter
