What does ‘Territorial Cohesion’ mean in Italy today?
My research[1], using European cohesion indicators and synthetic indices, shows that development processes have different cultural and socio-economic speeds in Italy: with values in the whole of Southern Italy being half of those of North-East regions, while Central regions of Italy show intermediate values. For example, several indicators influence social cohesion: lower income distribution in Southern Italy compared to Northern Italy to different levels of services, higher social exclusion of children and higher poverty risk of population in the South. So, cohesion appears to be related to the positive growth of GDP in the North of Italy. Likewise, the Adriatic macro-region is particularly co-operative and able to present an independent cultural-economic model. Higher levels of territorial cohesion, expressed as trans and intra-regional cooperation and local capability to develop economic, social, cultural endogenous models, are achieved by the regions of the North-West and North-Eas
