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Following the Italian Government's decision to fund strategic planning in order to promote a sustainable and competitive development in city-regions in southern Italy, the regional governments were asked to steer proactively strategic planning initiatives within their respective territory. In the cases of Bari and Taranto, it was the first time that 31 municipalities constituting Metropolitan Bari and 28 municipalities constituting sub-region Taranto attempted to think collectively in order to prepare the strategic plan. This paper evaluates strategic planning in Bari and Taranto sub-regions and discusses lessons learnt for future efforts in strategic planning. We examine why were the strategic plans made and how was the planning process organized and what, if any, impact these attempts had on development strategies and governance models at the urban-regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the success of Berlusconi's political formula in the context of urban changes and their effects on political participation. It argues that the suburban sprawl, or the urbanized countryside, needs to be looked at as a phenomenon that describes more than changes in human settlements; it both reflects and causes transformations in social practices with hefty consequences for political engagement. In Italy, the combination of suburban sprawl with mobility technologies, especially those related to individual and information mobility, has contributed to drag the agora into the den and to create a massive atomized audience. With a diminished public dialogue now negatively affecting the natural competition of ideas, as well as the liveliness and fairness of the democratic process, the retreat into the home has provided the breeding ground for demagoguery of the kind delivered by Berlusconi's formula of authoritarian manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]