Processes of Commercial Territorialization in the Polycentric Region of the Marche. New Commercial Hierarchies in the Doric Capital

The gradual modernization of commercial activities during the past 20 years has had a deep impact on the urban landscape of Ancona and has strongly affected the stable relationship that for decades had marked the city center and its suburbs. The traditional hierarchy of commercial areas has undergone a new configuration due to suburban territorialization processes brought by a large-scale polarization of the city’s suburbs. Understanding these new commercial hierarchies represents a valid tool for planning proper territorial policies and boosting more resilient-based processes which aim at restoring the primary role of a city center that has slowly lost its social appeal and its functional status-quo within the city’s metropolitan area and in the urban network of the Marche

Precaution and protection policies of urban ecosystem in the Iblea north eastern coast of Sicily

According to the hypothetical urban scenarios in the future, the urban ecosystem will be the piace where the most part of people live, with a deep negative impact on the world ecosystem. So it is necessary for all the people to get better ways of life in the towns and less and less unbalanced urban space, that to say a clean, efficiency and productive place that satisfies the needs of its inhabitants. A fundamental aim to the restoration of conditions of equity in the city seems to come from the models of development of sustainable city, related to the improvement of the environment and, above all, to a plan of sustainable society. Leaving from the indications of the European urban policies and those coming from issues about European, Mediterranean and Sicilian experiences, the team of present research may suggest he better political and technological choices adapted to the governance of urban ecosystem (with particular care for the waste, he transports, the management of the water and energetic resources) of the greater Sicilian cities an above all, of those if the Eastern Sicily. They will not come finally neglected the problematic related to the monitoring activities, both in function of the control of the environmental state and that of the continue verify of environmental impact of the pursued choices. Particular attention will be turned to the preventing of the seismic risk.

Trade as a cultural identity aspect in a city. A case study on Catania

In the present-day post-industrial society and in a globalised economy there is a strong tendency towards standardization and homologation. If we consider one of the most traditional urban functions - the commercial one - analysing what is happening in the centre of the cities of all the developed countries of the world, we notice a process of standardization regarding the offer, both in the sense of the single articles sold and in the sense of the commercial area in all its complexity (uniformity of the showcases for the exposure, diminution of the historical shops with sale of distinctive articles, diffusion of the branches of national and international chains and the phenomenon of franchising). Therefore, the central areas of our cities tend to be more and more alike. Obviously this is fruit of a more complex process, that is concretized in the tendency towards the diversification of the distributive network through the rapid diffusion of hypermarkets and commercial centres in the outskirts of cities and in the changed behaviour of the consumers, more and more directed to American styles of consumption. What kind of role will the more traditional commercial structures that characterize the Italian historical centres have in the future? Despite the fact that these last ones are, at the moment, under considerable pressure that pushes towards a more radical change, there is the possibility however that the particular "commercial landscape" that characterizes them could itself become a new model of development capable of promoting the urban culture, close to the functionalistic model, currently in expansion, totally directed towards the peripheral spaces. Catania is a city where we find, to a great extent, the evolutionary characteristics of the southern urban system, but in which we find even more the changes and the tendencies present in the cities of the more developed regions when processes of decentralization of economic activities, residential activities and of the social structures are outlined. The commercial patrimony of Catania, besides the cultural one, represents one of the pivots on which the identity of the city is based. It represents a resource for the development of the town and a stimulation of tourism. This research investigates the solidity and the potentialities of traditional commerce in the central areas of the city of Catania in relation to the dynamics of development of the external commercial centres.

Reading and interpreting the gateways in contemporary cities: an educational perspective

This work aims at highlighting the teaching potentialities of urban geography, in particular the didactic value of gateways in contemporary cities. Therefore, after a reflection on the still fundamental pedagogical value of urban geography and its teaching tools, the paper provides a model of reading and interpreting the city through the study of connections between tourist flows and consumption models in specific urban places, that is to say, the traditional city gateways such as railway stations, ports and airports

Is the <i>projected</i> landscape also <i>perceived</i>? A proposed research plan on Etna Park's conflicting destination image

With the advent of social media, the online Destination Image (DI) is focal for destination development as well as a comprehensive promotion strategy. However, it has been demonstrated that the official projected destination image could not respect the tourist perceived image, generating a case of a "conflict landscape". Such a conflict could be critical for destination promotion, especially in the actual, prominent use of social media in tourist approach and experience. Social media has, in fact, a pivotal impact upon the online user's perception and destination development. Thus, electronic word-of-mouth content strongly influences the will to visit a destination, forcing Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to update their image often. In the present work, we aim to present an in-progress-research on Etna Park (in Italy), a Regional Nature Park since 1987. More precisely, a web/social media analysis strategy on Etna Park's naturalistic pathways is exposed, highlighting tourists' feedback and perceived image. The results suggested managing any policy differences among actors (e.g., residents, Local Action Groups) engaged in Etna Park's DI, also investigating disagreements in all the viewpoints. The results obtained in this preliminary phase of research will be the basis for planning future research, which is intended to develop a positive relationship between nature-based tourism and Etna Park as a resilient destination, recommending a coherent place storytelling

A NEW DIALETICS CENTRE/PERIPHERY

This paper deals with the analysis of current changes which have been recently&nbsp;shaping unprecedented urban structures in some suburban areas, due to the&nbsp;emerging of new consumptions spaces. In particular, the work aims at highlighting&nbsp;the effect of urban sprawl on the main Sicilian metropolitan areas, also moulded&nbsp;by the diffusion of the suburban retailing formats, in order to evaluate to what&nbsp;extent these dynamics have been contributing to the configuration of new urban&nbsp;landscapes and unprecedented socio-economic structures, not to mention the&nbsp; new consumption spacessupport in the process of containing social and economic marginalisation