Contributions of the configurational approach to territorial imbalances’ mapping : a discussion centred on the Italian cohesion strategy

The European Union's territorial expansion has brought to light the existence of regions characterised by uneven development and asymmetric connections to primary infrastructure networks. In particular, the so-called ‘Inner Areas’ cover around 60% of the Italian territory and the national cohesion strategy (SNAI) targeting them was developed to combat marginalisation and demographic decline, while enhancing resilience, adaptation to climate-change, and risk mitigation. Nevertheless, its primary focus on service and infrastructure marginality overlooks broader socio-spatial indicators, particularly resources’ accessibility and use of different mobility modes, hindering its effectiveness. Within this framework, the paper discusses the potential contributions of the configurational approach to mapping territorial accessibility levels through its application to the Italian case. Specifically, it proposes and tests the use of a configuration-informed composite index for territorial imbalances’ mapping, the ‘S³NAI’. The proposal is rooted in a nationwide Space Syntax Angular Segment Analysis performed on primary-roads elements; whence the Normalised Angular Integration, at global and local metric radii, is employed to assess municipalities’ ease of access, accounting for transport network efficiency and connectivity from a human-centred perspective. This aims to move marginality assessments beyond issues of geographical distance and travel-time to include more clearly the social and economic perspective in them. On this basis, the adoption of the configurational approach in mapping marginalities is proposed to enrich and inform the development of national- and regional-level territorial cohesion strategies.