The institutional history of Milan metropolitan area

‘White flight’ in Milan: School segregation as a result of home-to-school mobility

“…Milan is traditionally a middleclass, socially mixed city, with relatively few clusters of 'problematic' population groups likely to be concentrated in some deprived areas (Mugnano and Costarelli, 2018;Torri and Vitale, 2010). Although urban poverty and socio-economic inequality are higher in Milan than in many other similar European cities (Cucca and Ranci, 2017), this fact is reflected less in the spread of huge peripheral areas than in micro-scale segregation dynamics (Balducci et al, 2017;Del Fabbro, 2017). However, recent economic and demographic trends leading to increased spatial inequality and higher ethnicisation of the population have paved the way for the emergence of higher residential segregation associated with poor housing conditions (Tosi, 2017), which is common to other southern European cities (see also Bonal, 2002).…”

Seeking polycentric post-suburbanization: a view from the urban region of Milan

“…Between the 1950s and 1960, an inter-municipal masterplan (PIM -Piano Intercomunale Milanese) was the first attempt to establish a unitary form of government (Balducci, 2003), by including 79 municipalities around the central cities (although negotiations initially involved only 35 outer municipalities, then extending the area to 94 towns in 1963, before winding down the project). Today, contemporary challenges on a large-scale rationale face economic competitiveness and institutional changes toward metropolization (Balducci, 2003;Del Fabbro, 2017;Gualini, 2003), and Milan represents a pivotal observatory for the construction of metropolitan space. As noticed by Lanzani (2003), many different forms of extended urbanization have crossed the entire Lombardy region since the early 20th century, where the metropolitan core is identified with Milan and its neighboring municipalities.…”