Abstract

In the globalization age, also a new regionalization is taking place. The paper investigates the usefulness of the global-city region concept (as introduced by Allan J. Scott) in the context of Northern Italy. Even if thinking of Northern Italy as a single homogeneous area is in some respects plausible, in others it is less certain. Economy in the area exhibits thick inter-regional relationship networks, but management at the inter-regional scale of regulation and infrastructure production processes has been difficult and discontinuous. Northern Italy may be too large and differentiated to be thought of as a single global-city region, but it is reasonable to carry on the research on ongoing processes, taking also into account the current political debate on the "questione settentrinale".