Speaker
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected trade in Italy, highlighting structural weaknesses and catalyzing significant changes in the production and distribution sectors. This aspect emerges prominently in Lombardy, the epicenter in Europe of the health and economic crises.
During this period (2019-2022) the Regional Council of Lombardy has drafted and approved the Multi-Year Programme for the Development of the Commercial Sector-PPSSC, as a policy framework document for the retail trade network in Lombardy. This document provides the fundamental components for the advancement of fixed location retail trade, with particular reference to diverse sales structures, while introducing regulatory measures and proactive policies aimed at rebalancing and integrating the various forms of distribution. The Programme has been outlined and structured by feeding on a debate, which has involved institutions, economic and territorial actors, and that has taken on the transformations of lifestyles and purchasing habits that have emerged with the pandemic crisis, placing the quality of city and territorial living at its core.
The PPSSC identifies six territorial areas of commerce in Lombardy, recognising different conditions of population density and opportunities for integrating the commercial function into the network of services: from metropolitan and urban polarities to mountainous or plain inland areas (suffering from demographic decline and commercial desertification), with intermediate areas made up of medium-density urbanised contexts interdependent with the main urban systems.
Based on the contents of the Monitoring Plan (drawn up as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure and approved together with the Programme), this research aims to analyse the main trends in the commercial sector that have affected Lombardy before and after the pandemic crisis, and especially to examine the extent to which the pandemic event represented a temporary crisis or, conversely, the beginning of a transition towards new structures and new trends in the commercial sector.
In particular, the research aims to develop the potential role of the "commercial districts" in this transition, promoted as "innovative territorial enhancement methods to promote commerce as an effective aggregation factor capable of activating economic, social and cultural dynamics".
Two distinct types of District have been defined:
- Urban Trade Districts are established on the territory of a single municipality or part of it;
- Diffuse Districts of Inter-Municipal Relevance are established/settled on the territory of several municipalities.
The mission of the districts is to stimulate and innovate urban commerce, thereby fostering a balance between the various commercial formats. Attractiveness and competitiveness are supported by a unitary direction that, through public-private partnerships, municipalities, enterprises and other local stakeholders, promotes the development of cities and territories, thanks to the pursuit of a shared strategic and investment vision.
It is therefore recommended that commercial districts be tasked with interpreting the two extremes a demand (post Covid) that presents a distinct privileged adherence between the two formulas of the Urban Trade Districts and the Diffuse Districts of Inter-Municipal Relevance:
- a redefinition of commerce in urban areas, based on an emerging focus on the theme of proximity (the obvious reference is to the debate on the 15-Minute City) and on responding to the dynamics of commercial organisation and shopping, increasingly characterised by the digital transition;
- a restructuring of the network of commercial services in inland/low-density areas, identifying on the one hand the synergies of neighborhood establishments with the network of citizenship services, and on the other hand the opportunities for complementarity between the (profitable) retail parks established urban and metropolitan areas and the fragile commercial network of inner areas.
References
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Adobati F., et alii (2024), COVID-19 as a systemic shock: curb or catalyst for proactive policies towards territorial cohesion? Regional Studies, 58(8), 1543–1556
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Atelier Urbaine (2024), Post pandemic trade and role of municipalities-reflection Covid-19, Montreal Quebec, Canada, latelierurbain.com
- Fernandes J. R., Chamusca P., (2014) Urban policies, planning and retail resilience, Cities, Vol. 36, 170-177
- Kickert C., Vom Hofe R., Haas T., Zhang W., Mahato B., (2020) Spatial dynamics of long-term urban retail decline in three transatlantic cities, Cities, Volume 107
- Limonta G., Paris M., (2016) Descrivere e monitorare il commercio urbano, UDM, n. 4, 11-18
| Keywords | post-pandemic crisis; commercial districts; collaborative governance; |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
