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“Made in town”: bringing spirit to cities in the XXI century

Some reflections on cities’ future and local identityIvano Canteri, member of the board, JIEF

Ivano Canteri© Fukuoka, Nov. 25° 2015Fukuoka, November 25° 2015

Ivano Canteri© Fukuoka, Nov. 25° 2015

Is the world exploding?


By 2030 104 large cities (+ 5 mill.) will turn upside down the very idea of community

Larger scale problems Larger scale budgets Fewer resources

available Deeper impact on

quality of life Extensive cultural

frictions Loss of identity Cultural depletion


78% of the world population will still reside in small and medium size cities

However, the Fukuoka’s are in the thousands and will continue to host the largest number of people living on planet Earth

These will account for a fair share of worldwide wealth and opportunities

2121 medium size communitiesequalling 39% of the world’s


The enormous scale of growth of some communities influences the existence of smaller urban entities requiring them to confront change with an even more competitive mindset – the «black hole» effect

The identity of any city is largely founded on the tradition and history of one single community

Territories have never been identical: less than ever this is true today

The dynamics of local economy, society, industry and culture, even health, are profoundly affected by global exposure

Megacities vs. well-balanced communities


Evolution brings differentiation

Thus, smaller scale communities are driven towards a «metropolitan» evolution, extending their reach and then overlapping and intersecting interests and needs with neighbouring communities

Local identities are therefore forcibly modified, re-moulded and re-shaped by the single differences and peculiarities brought in by therelations and interactions of individuals and organisations with the extended territory


Local identity is not an exercise of graphics


Achieve critical mass to compete Competing for wealth and success in this marketplace implies to

deal with a territorial «object» profoundly changed in its shape and substance too: new homogenities and new separations are redefining the identity of our towns and territories

Convergence and cohesion have to be pursued and mastered: smaller communities and spreaded territories need to coalesce and join forces to avoid irrelevance and too small critical mass

A larger multi-faceted community, means more functions available, more assets and more opportunities on which to engineer the future


The new role for our midsize towns and cities is that of being pivotal centres of larger mini-regions (geoeconomic area encompassing several traditionally or politically defined regions) as opposed to conurbations (large densely populated urban sprawls)

Mayors and councillors have to build stronger analytical capacity of the global demand – i.e. more committment in order to integrate and profile a simple, immediate and engaging offer, easy to be positioned internationally

Dispersion and loss of focus must be avoided by concentrating on fewer, prominent and realistic objectives – something will need to be left aside

From urban sprawls to interacting communities


Mastering the process of change Each place need to develop its own ad hoc solutions, bearing very close

connection to the development of a sound governance of the processes (e.g.: mobility in a chief town accounting for 50% of the economic strength of its prefecture has different requirements of efficiency than that of a town accounting for just 25% – irrespective of their sizes)

The stakeholders of the community have to be turned into «territorial engineers», taking charge of the re-definition of the territory as a product (shift

to strategic marketing): traditions and history are not anymore the only founding facts of our place

Convergence of tools and objectives, sharing of ideas and decisions are at the base of success


Technology has no borders, why territories sharing common problems should ?

Convergence will not necessarily develop only between bordering communities being part of the same geographic «cluster»

Integration of functions, sectors, industries and tools (e.g. culture, tourism, food and goods, services and people) can be built with more distant towns and territories so to create a more extensive range of opportunities (vertical integration)

Homogeneous clusters of smaller communities could occasionally relate to larger, more distant ones on subject-specific issues – see the EU programming – as well as develop common solutions


Central governments’ key role

• National policies should be addressed to Strengthen the dialogue with/between territories Decentralise functions to territories on the base of their specific

individual critical mass and market potential Support convergence of territories with similar and complementary

identities and positionings Provide the operative platform for

territories to act independently Activate any local community able

to match specific opportunities spotted in the international markets


Where to start with tomorrow morning?

• Some key projects: internationalisation, enterprises, joint cultural initiatives, investments, territorial exchanges, partners sourcings

• Twin cities have made their time: one step beyond to actual cooperation on sector/topic specific issues between clusters of know-how and expertise

• Searching for integration of common objectives and results with foreign anddistant partners

• A few opportunities are already on the go thanks to JIEF


Thank you for your attention!I look forward to your commentsご聴講ありがとうございました！ご感想もお待ちしております。

Ivano CanteriCorso Principe Eugenio 8

10122 Torino, Italymobile +39335336284

[email protected]

Facebook / LinkedinSkype: ivano.canteri

Twitter: #ICanteri

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