Preface

This volume contains the proceedings for the third International “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES. Local Knowledge and Innovation dynamics towards territory attractiveness through the implementation ofHorizon/Europe2020/Agenda2030”, which took place on 22–25 May 2018 inReggio Calabria, Italy.The Symposium is jointly promoted by LaborEst (Evaluation and EconomicAppraisal Lab) and CLUDs (Commercial Local Urban Districts Lab), Laboratories of the PAU Department, Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, in partnership with a qualified international network of academic institution and scientific societies.The third edition of “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES” aims to deepen those factors which contribute to increase cities and territories attractiveness, both with theoretical studies and tangible applications.It represents the conclusive event of the Multidisciplinary Approach to PlanSmart Specialisation Strategies for Local Economic Development (MAPS-LED)Research Project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research andInnovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions—RISE 2014.This edition of the Symposium is going to give a specific attention to those linkages between innovation dynamics and territories attractiveness, as will be better explained by our colleague Carmelina Bevilacqua.In the last decades, metropolitan cities have been studied from different perspectives, according to diverse academic and scientific points of view, but under the common attitude towards their spatial dynamics.Recent economic and political developments press the scientific community addressing two issues of current relevance:– The spatial implications of the economic and demographic decline of large areas in Europe and Western Countries;– The impact of ICT dissemination on urban/rural environment and, broadly, on the idea of society.For decades, technical tools, especially in the field of urban planning, have been developed to allow urban and territorial transformations in a context characterized by expansive dynamics. Looking at the productive system and, within it, the job’s organization as one of the discriminating elements of territorial transformation, the following question arises: what is the destiny of the industrial and post-industrial city, known as a place of concentration of workforce and market?These considerations focus the attention of the academic community on the dimension of distant future. The spread of new communication technologies and new production systems is increasingly pushing everywhere towards the progressive “liquefaction” of the social structures, organizational models and systems that have been known so far as Bauman‘s intuition. Such a long horizon necessarily requires the renewal of a visionary, utopian vision that imagines society of the future through a dreamlike dimension of avant-garde. It becomes crucial to debate the running direction; the profound changes are going on in contemporary society and its impact on urban/rural environment of the future.We might suggest the anthropic desertification is a phenomenon shared among the lagging Regions: increasingly, many people move from their hometowns to reach better places, such as the metropolitan areas, to improve their conditions of life. Such process inevitably contributes to the general poorness of those Regions, already weakened, by increasing such declining status even more.One of the most important topics to be considered, which more than others characterizes all metropolitan regions, is surely their capacity to attract people, and consequently capitals. Indeed, territorial policies aim mostly to catch investments in order to enhance job creation and to positively influence socio-economic indicators.Nevertheless,