{"id":4715,"date":"2017-03-27T12:25:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T12:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communitymediaresearch.it\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:48:13","slug":"il-territorio-peso-economico-politico-e-nel-percepito-degli-italiani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.community.it\/en\/2017\/03\/27\/il-territorio-peso-economico-politico-e-nel-percepito-degli-italiani\/","title":{"rendered":"The territory: economic, political and perceived weight of Italians"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent years, territory has become increasingly important in public and political discussion. And this happens due to the concurrence of a number of aspects. Certainly, globalisation processes play a central role in the return to the category of territory. New technologies connect us with the world, production systems localise beyond their original borders and extend their networks regardless of frontiers, finance has no barriers, migrations displace portions of entire populations: observing such phenomena, it is fair to say that we are becoming a 'big global house'. In the (unconscious) construction of this new 'block of flats', however, there is also a feeling of disorientation, of loss of traditional references: there is a need, therefore, at the same time to anchor oneself to one's roots, to the social identities of one's original territory. More often than not in an alternative way: at the same time we want to be open to the world and try to anchor ourselves to our roots. Even politics, and not only local politics, is rediscovering the importance of the territory, albeit with great effort.<\/p>\n

The metamorphosis of the parties that has taken place over the past decades has led to the loss of prominence of their territorial presence: the disappearance and irrelevance of the circles in local societies has been compounded by an envelopment in the internal dynamics of the logic of political action, which has led to the loss - as they say - of contact with reality. Hence the call to be among the people, to return to the territory, at least in a visible manner, to seek new interlocutions with the various social actors. The production world itself, then, is discovering the centrality of the territory as a factor of competitiveness. This is not just a question of the good performance of industrial districts, as the latest Monitor report by the Intesa Sanpaolo Research Centre also emphasises. But also of the importance that it has in the narration of products, in the added value that traditions and the territorial brand take on in affirming our productions on a global scale, as demonstrated by the success of Made in Italy. Thus, the territory in its various meanings becomes central, paradoxically, in global dynamics. How important it is and what weight it has is not only measured in economic terms, but also from the point of view of how people perceive the place where they live. In this sense, the latest survey by Community Media Research explored what weight the population assigns to their region on two fronts: economic and political. The result is a geography of territories that cannot be taken for granted. First of all, observing the perceived economic weight, as was easy to expect, sees Lombardy (94.6%), Veneto (89.1%) and Emilia Romagna (86.8%) at the top of the ranking, and well above the national average (50.9%), followed immediately by Tuscany (74.0%) and Piedmont (65.4%). Therefore, it is the productive North, to which the Tuscans are added, that considers itself the lever of the national economy, on the one hand; while - with the exception of Basilicata (47.5%) and Lazio (41.5%), placed just below the average - the remaining central regions (Marche and Umbria: 12.1%) and above all the South (14.4%) attribute little economic importance to themselves, not to say a feeling of marginality. It should be noted, however, that not all the northern regions are above the national average: the inhabitants of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige and Liguria reflect a less than positive perception of their economy on the national level, to the point that Valle d'Aosta occupies last place in the ranking. The territorial ranking changes when we move on to consider political weight. Having said that the national average value is much lower (33.2%) than the economic one, we see a shift that intuitively involves some central and northern regions to a greater extent. The podium is conquered by Tuscany (82.4%), followed by Emilia Romagna (69.4%) and Lazio (68.8%), i.e. the main regions of origin of the ministers of the Gentiloni executive (and Renzi before), as well as the current leading figures in today's political arena. Further behind are Lombardy (60.7%) and Basilicata (51.3%), the only regions to be above the national average. Therefore, such an outcome leads us to emphasise how there is no clear overlap, in the perception of the population, between the economic weight attributed to the regions and the political weight, particularly for the more dynamic productive realities such as those of the North. It is as if there were a misalignment between the role of the economy and political representation at a national level, involving significant realities such as Piedmont (29.4%), Veneto (21.7%), Friuli Venezia Giulia (29.4%), as well as Campania (32.0%).<\/p>\n

The research shows how fault lines exist (and, above all, unfortunately persist) at territorial level not only in objective data, but also in the perceptions of the population. And yet, they are uneven faults compared to what we are generally led to think. The North certainly constitutes the economic locomotive, but not all of the North is. We should speak of it in the plural, as 'the' different Norths. Similarly, we should look at the Mezzogiorno. Indeed, to 'the' Mezzogiorno. As Svimez itself points out, it is an articulated set of territories. Proof of this is the case of Basilicata, whose GDP growth in recent years has been higher than the national average, but the same population gives itself a significant weight in economic and political terms: how can we blame them when we think of the resumption of production in Melfi, Matera as a European city of culture in 2019, tourism, and film sets. Paradoxically, the territory, or rather the territories, assume a fundamental role in the face of globalisation processes. However, it is necessary to observe them closely, in an articulate manner, in order to narrate them realistically and give them the right value. To also narrow the gap between social representation and political representation.<\/p>\n