A network of virtuous cities

The Network of the Strategic Cities (Rete delle Città Strategiche - ReCS) is a national association set up in 2004 by 7 cities, which now brings together no less than 38 cities of all sizes all over the country. These are cities that have chosen strategic planning as an instrument to support urban development, through a different approach to governance that sets stakeholders and interests in relation with the policies and resources of the territory, fosters coordinated and integrated programming and maps out new inter-institutional relations between local and supralocal governments.

The ReCS brings a range of expertise into play (politicians and city executives, local government experts and Italian and foreign academics), representing a strategic vantage point for observing local development policies in Italy, and an acknowledged benchmark in the local and national debate, in the scientific world and in that of education.

The ReCS contributes to building and consolidating the “point of view” of cities in Italy and Europe and, with a view to more forceful intervention on Community urban policy, it is now opening up the national borders towards a network of European cities.

The ReCS is open to all the cities that implement strategic planning as a tool and an innovative process of territorial government, understood as the programming of actions and intervention aimed at developing a medium-long term vision in a large-scale territorial dimension, implementing tools and methods aimed at broad consultation with the territorial stakeholders and the integration of policies and social, economic and civil interests.

Joining the ReCS enables cities to exchange experiences and adopt approaches, to enhance methodological and managerial tools and refine analyses of institutional processes and metropolitan governance. For the cities, the ReCS represents an important opportunity for developing strategic planning as a method of governance geared to enhancing the decisional processes of public policy, also spreading the knowledge of international experiences of excellence as significant benchmarks for the Italian experiences.

The Network to enhance governance of the cities

The ReCS fosters co-operation between the cities of Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean, promoting and participating in projects that create synergies and transnational alliances, constructing communities of practice aimed at disseminating strategic planning, fine-tuning its tools and stimulating comparison and debate on local government, reminding national and European decision-makers of the centrality of urban policy.

The ReCS fosters the exchange of experiences, information and the suggestions yielded by good practice (of governance, planning, acquisition, management and use of resources). The benchmarking activities of the ReCS assist the cities in meditating on the processes of governance of the vast area and the most appropriate models for representing them, offering the opportunity to enhance decisional and administrative instruments for the management of the territories.

The ReCS organises conventions and debates on the development of the cities at the highest technical and scientific level. Every year the ReCS schedules an international conference on various aspects related to multilevel governance and strategic planning as a tool to sustain urban governance.

The ReCS promotes approaches for evaluation of the plans developed by commissions made up of technicians from the cities and academics from the Scientific Committee, based on a critical analysis of the opportunities and the difficulties of the planning process in the specific context, and aimed at obtaining cues for reflection and guidance for the continuation of the actions.

The ReCS promotes research where the cities feel that a theoretical elaboration is called for, combined with an analysis of experiences on issues supporting the activities of strategic planning.

The ReCS generates training processes, online and on site, aimed at boosting knowledge for the drafting, negotiation and monitoring of a strategic plan, and for locating the financial resources necessary for the implementation of the shared strategies and projects.

The ReCS organises visits to European cities representing best practices in terms of the construction of a vision of the future and for planning actions to achieve it. Guided tours of the sites of transformation (relating to town planning and also to economic and social innovations), in addition to meetings with lead actors in the planning and the main contacts involved in the actions.

The ReCS fosters relations between the Italian and European cities as well as liaison with the national and international institutions that deal with urban policies and local development.

Through its website www.recs.it the ReCS offers the cities a showcase to communicate and promote their activities, boosting visibility and the capacity for dissemination on the Italian and international scene.

The ReCS represents a permanent observatory for cities with strategic plans, through the systematic organisation of experiences, studies and projects on local government policies. It selects, synthesises and elaborates articles, essays and scientific literature on the issue of strategic planning in all its ramifications.

The activities of the ReCS benefit from the support and collaboration of national bodies and institutions including Anci, Anci Ideali, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Economic Planning, Forum PA, Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Lega delle Autonomie, and the Regional Authorities.