(By Alessandra Briganti)
Industry has only partly abandoned urban centres in Europe and
what was thought to be a relic of the 20th century continues to
characterize the economic fabric with new features that
traditional analyses are failing to detect, says the MISTA
project, carried out by the European cooperation programme
ESPON, which specializes in regional analysis.
In particular, major urban areas continue to be a privileged
location for manufacturing: more than half (54%) of European
industry's workforce, equal to around 19.8 million people, is
employed in metropolitan regions and generates an added value of
around 1.7 billion euros and almost two thirds (64%) of the
industrial production of the entire EU.
Within these regions, the largest and most densely populated
cities are fundamental places for industrial production: here,
8.4 million industrial workers generate some 30% of European
industrial production.
The importance of metropolitan areas as industrial locations
does not appear to have diminished over the last quarter of a
century: the percentage of manufacturing workers employed in
metropolitan regions has fallen by just 3% since 1995, compared
with an increase in industrial production of 1%.
"Traditional analyses," explains Valeria Fedeli, a lecturer in
urban planning and policy at the Politecnico University in
Milano, "are not able to capture this picture for several
reasons.
"In the first place, they refer to the main city and not to the
surrounding urban area: if you broaden your gaze and consider
the latter dimension too, you realize that industry has
remained".
In other words, there is a closer functional relationship
between urban centres and their surrounding areas which
underlies a more widespread industrial model in local areas.
"Manufacturing, furthermore, is very different from the past and
is marked by high integration with services and the third
sector," Fedeli adds.
In short, for a part of industry that has migrated, another part
has arrived and seeks in urban areas its base of reference.
The new kind of urban industry is based on creative and
personalised production, of high knowledge intensity, but not
only that.
"There are fundamental sectors like urban logistics or the
provision of services - water, energy, waste treatment, for
example - that function as fully fledged advanced manufacturing
sectors," the professor goes on to explain.
This is a paradigm shift that also has an impact on employment.
"Those who work in this type of industry are no longer blue
collar, but a more specialised worker, and it is difficult to
re-employ people who have different skills from those required
by the new manufacturing. And that," Fedeli concludes,
"represents one of the biggest challenges for cities, especially
those with a great manufacturing past".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
