Naples: Its implosion and regeneration

Within the more general Italian urban question, a southern urban questionsurges long since. The crisis of the city of Naples is the most obvious manifestationof it.The decline of Naples began in the 1970s, with a progressive reduction ofits role and influence in the southern and national territory. Since then, uninterruptedly,Naples has lost population, falling from about 1,250,000 inhabitants tojust over 950,000, giving rise to a real downsizing that involved systematically itsproductive assets, its business districts, its appeal towards investors and capital,tourists or even only migratory flows, finally also the ability to design scenariosfor the contemporary world in a vision for the future. The responsibilities ofdirectors and political forces in the events that mark the last three decades inNaples are several and of no small importance. However, it is indisputable thata variety of economic, social, culture, information actors have contributed to obtainthe results here described: some of them have been involved directly, findingsufficient interest and self-interest, others have been passive witnesses, refusingto play that critical and independent role needed in such contexts. In thiscontext, the prospect of the birth of the metropolitan city of Naples may be anopportunity to reverse the decline: it is a city of three million people who haveall the power to regain its centrality and role in Europe, under construction, andin new geographical dimensions.