The Symposium is part of the scientific debate that the University Lab “LaborEst” in partnership with a qualified international network of an academic institution and scientific societies, promotes on issues related to the competitiveness of metropolitan cities and inland areas in the least developed and developing regions.

The event is organized with the aim to receive contributions from national and international scientific community on integrated development strategies and research according to the directions of Europe 2020 and Horizon 2020.

The final reflections of the first edition of ISTH (2014) round table have demonstrated that the debate on strategies to effectively implement the EU 2020 goals aiming at a greater involvement of cities and regions in the European policies is still open. The territorial cohesion policy at global and local level, including through the assumption by the Commission of the ‘smart specialization’, better known as approach ‘RIS3’, has led to controversial discussions, such as on the relationship between specialization and diversification up to question on the current role of knowledge and technologies to the European economy. In addition, the recent European documents, among others the Leipzig Charter, the VI Report on Economic and Social Cohesion, and EU 2020, identified a number of major challenges, such as: the challenge of competitiveness, the knowledge society, the domestic and international accessibility, and the inclusion and social cohesion. In the contest of the second edition of “New Metropolitan Perspectives”, reflections are welcome on cities’ ability to implement metropolitan dynamics and to improve their competitiveness while exploiting the virtuous and synergic linkage between urban and rural areas.

The aims of the Symposium are:

  1-Contributing to the international dialogue, promoting joint research activities according to the objectives of the 2014–2020 programming period 

   2- Stimulating the multi-disciplinary scientific debate on the new frontiers of strategic planning, spatial planning, economic programs and decision support tools, within the urban-rural areas networks and the metropolitan cities, best laying in least developed and developing regions. 

 3-Promoting a holistic approach, through specialized inputs, to resource allocation decision-making and urban/rural spatial organization.