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Drawing upon the debates on 'suburbanisms' and 'arrival space', this article explores the complexities for welfare governance in multiethnic peripheries. The paper bridges two themes of the contemporary 'suburban century': the intensified global migration flows and the peripheral condition of suburbs worldwide; the work refers to the Municipality of Pioltello, a multiethnic suburban area in Milan's region. This double-sided perspective reveals governance dynamics, here discussed through the concept of 'welfare offloading'. In the observed neighborhood, governmental complexities disclose profound interdependencies with the region's urban core and across municipalities; welfare tensions are 'offloaded' from the central core to peripheral regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years, suburbanization has gradually turned into a key topic of analysis, whereas welfare policies have faced a significant public reconfiguration towards the local scale of provision and the development of local welfare systems. Combined in such a way, these two statements tell us little, and they appear to be separate and without any relation. This article aims at building the analytical and research interplays between these two topics. In so doing, the article addresses the governance and planning of local welfare services in suburbs, entwined with the post-suburban theoretical frame. By identifying the issues at stake--that is, the governance of welfare and services--the analysis investigates the uneven socio-spatial polarizations that are currently emerging in metropolitan areas. The research bridges a research gap between the unevenness of the suburban expansion and the changing provision of welfare services. The article discusses these insights with three Italian cases from the edges of the three main metropolitan areas: Milan, Rome, and Naples. The empirical discussion, which relies on the outcomes of qualitative fieldwork activities, discusses and compares the differentiation of welfare provision and the relevant diverse "suburban societies' amongst the three contexts. Through this focus, the article points out that a heterogeneous and unequal spatial distribution of basic services and social infrastructures is to be found amongst the constellation of towns located on the outskirts of an urban core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, suburbs and urban fringes are pivotal places for understanding contemporary urban transformations because the majority of the world's urban population live in suburbs. Suburbanization (i.e. the process of combining the non-centric population, economic growth, and spatial expansion) and suburbanisms (suburban ways of living) are key concepts for observing these transformations, framed under the umbrella of the post-suburban theoretical framework. This paper relies on a post-suburban standpoint as it enables the complexity of the diverse transformations at the urban edges to be addressed. On such basis, this paper discusses the outcomes of a qualitative case study conducted on the most recently built neighbourhood of Fiano Romano, a suburb of Rome that has faced a number of socio-spatial transformations over the past two decades. The study illustrates the diverse complexities related to the provision of welfare services and public amenities such as water and social infrastructures. In so doing, the article unfolds the shape of a 'new suburbia' characterized by emerging socio-spatial changes that lie in processes of peripheralization, which characterize many contemporary post-Fordist suburban areas, especially at the present time of the coronavirus crisis. The article points out the centrality of suburban ways of living in studying issues involving both spatial planning and governance of welfare. Furthermore, the article highlights the idea that new inequalities and deprivations are taking place in diverse suburban areas, and that such aspects deserve further governance agendas able to meet the suburban social demands that differ from traditional urban vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper stems from the need to find a renewed interpretative key of the concept of social innovation in territorial approaches: this was done by observing different forms of research, as well as methodological-disciplinary perspectives. To this end, the analysis is based on a systematic review: on one hand, considering the presence of the keyword social innovation combined with the concepts of entrepreneurship, inclusion and co-production; on the other hand, it addresses the presence or absence of any territorial or urban perspective. The aim of the review is to get a better understanding of urban/territorial elements present in the current social innovation academic landscape, and to identify new directions toward which different approaches to SI entail applications to the urban policy field. • An in-depth theoretical discussion on the relevance of the territorial perspective in the field of social innovation studies is provided • A systematic literature review on social innovation scholarship is provided assessing the presence of urban/territorial elements in the current academic debate • The systematic review provided becomes an expedient to reflect on possible social innovation implications in urban policies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, suburban studies have emerged from a call for a new conceptual order to go beyond the traditional dichotomies of the urban realm, namely, the centre‐periphery division. Such an approach distinguishes the city and suburbs as two separate entities, which hampers a better understanding of urbanization overall. Previously, studies of suburban areas have been interested in urban growth and regional development, albeit peripheral to the core themes of the research field. Yet a continuity of studies focusing on suburbs is appearing, and a proliferation of concepts has been produced to describe the diverse suburban forms according to specific features. Furthermore, suburbanization has now assumed a global dimension, as demonstrated by several recent studies and different new urban theories including "post‐metropolis," "planetary urbanization," and "polycentric metropolis." This article aims at pursuing a "suburban debate" by providing an overview of the current state of research while pointing out the main frictions and unsolved issues of this proliferating discussion. First, conceptual frictions that travel worldwide are addressed and discussed. Then, contemporary issues and challenges regarding the governance of areas at the "urban edges" are highlighted as fundamental aspects to cope with while observing the socio‐spatial and socio‐economic polarizations that are occurring in the constant (sub)urban expansion, as recently addressed by several scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]