Assessments and Reflections on Integrated Territorial Planning in Calabria in the 2000–2020 Programming Period. From the Experimental Phase to the Consolidated Method of Cooperation Between Territories

In the long experience of integrated territorial planning (ITP) implemented in Calabria, with the Leader Community Initiative, the Territorial Pacts and the Regional Operational Programming of the Structural Funds, there have been evolutionary dynamics that have produced important innovations in the local territories. This new modality of intervention has generated and spread in the territories, especially the marginal ones, positive effects in terms of policy making behaviour and practices, more so where Local Action Groups are active. Although in the three programming cycles (2000–2020) there has been an apparent weakening of the use of ITP instruments by the Region of Calabria, reading the documentation and acts produced and listening to the main actors involved at the regional and local levels reveal an evolution of the instruments, in terms of programming choices, from generalist to thematic. In this contribution, in addition to the analysis of the ITP instruments in the 3 Regional Operational Programmes (Calabria ROPs 2000–2006, 2007–2013 and 2014–2020), a series of evaluations and reflections on the experience of Integrated Territorial Planning in Calabria are reported, highlighting its criticalities and positive effects, especially in terms of method. In fact, the practice of dialogue, confrontation and thinking in collective terms has been acquired on a permanent basis, creating in some cases consolidated territorial identity networks and generating in local communities a widespread awareness of the heritage of local resources. In the evaluations, particular attention is paid to the ‘point of view of the actors’, in some cases different depending on the role played.