The Contested Countryside. Spatial Planning and Governance across the Urban/Rural Interface in Italy and England

The book explores the relationship between intermunicipal cooperation and planning polizie in two domestic contexts, Italy and England. It investigates the relational politics, processes and practices of cooperation by which local governments can shape planning policies and strategies addressed to improve the contribution of agricultural production in building stronger urban/rural relationships and in guiding the transition towards more sustainable food systems. The research problematizes this topic by looking at the planning actions and interactions, connection and disconnections among local governments in three cases of different administrative and geographical size and configuration: the metropolitan area of Milan and the Aso Valley in Italy, and the city-region of Bristol in England. The study offers a contribution to planning research and practice by investigating possible governante arrangements and planning approaches by which local governments can strengthen the spatial and functional ties between cities and their rural hinterland. What the three cases elicit is a delicate tension among city’s pressing social and economic needs and countryside’s unexploited contribution to more localised patterns of agricultural production.