Abstract

Redefining territoriality is a crucial aspect of the changing nature of public policies in a multi-level, 'post-national' polity. New forms of territoriality in spatial development policies can be thus seen as a key analytical dimension of change in the state's role and rationales in defining public policies. The article addresses emergent practices of territorial governance in a perspective of inquiry on state change, with particular reference to western European countries. The changing nexus between territoriality and the state is addressed according to a 'governance approach' that privileges a policy-driven interpretation of change, and builds on a theoretical framework largely alternative to traditional 'state-centered' approaches. Reference goes to new conceptualizations of sociospatial structuration processes in the social sciences and to critical reassessments of related geographical concepts in political economy and geography. Particular attention goes to the notion of 'scale', and to 'rescaling' - i.e. the redefinition of the geographical scales of state regulation and governance - as a key dimension of state restructuring processes. In this perspective, state-theoretical regulationist approaches are discussed that emphasize the scalar dimension of state restructuring as a key response to the changing position of the state as a site of regulation in a context of inter- and trans-nationalization.