STRATEGIC PLANNING AND TERRITORIAL SUBJECTIVITY IN THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Relying on the concept of ≪territorial subjectivity≫, this paper briefly analyzes the Italian experience of strategic planning: it aims at showing the role territorial subjectivity played in determining the success or failure of this planning practice. Too often, the effectiveness of the plan is supposed to depend on its quality and on its territorial coherence, but also the nature and the quality of the (political) subject who designs and implements it has by no means a crucial role. It seems clear that a reciprocal relationship
exists between territorial subjectivity and strategic planning. The former fosters the active involvement of local stakeholders and the process of convergence previous to the definition of the objectives of the plan; partnership mechanisms, in turn, being embedded in collective memory and materialized into acts of territorialization of the physical space, concur to the strengthening of territorial subjectivity and of its capability of shaping space and guiding collective action.