CITIES; BETWEEN ENGINES FOR GROWTH, AND DEVELOPMENT
CITIES; BETWEEN ENGINES FOR GROWTH, AND DEVELOPMENT

Summary/Abstract: Due to the advantages offered by agglomerations, human activities have always concentrated, and cities have become multifunctional places: living places, places where goods and services are produced, socializing places, etc. Nowadays however, the negative effects produced by agglomerations often get to overbalance the positive effects and to repel people and activities. Agglomerations often become impersonal and unfamiliar. They are no longer a “lived space” and people can hardly wait to “evade” at least during the weekend. On the other hand, cities are producing the most part of the added value in the EU; they are, in many aspects, the engines of the European economy, but also forerunners in the production of ideas and behaviors. In this context, the dynamics of some cities is different, mainly due to a false competition between the city as a production space and the city as living space for people. Our analysis will focus on the way in which cities use and transfer these resources, adding or destroying energies, materials, values and lives. We will underline the complementarities of the various societal areas as engines for development, so as to be able to reinforce the assumption that economic, political and social domains cannot evolve separately if a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is to be considered.

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