Federico Diodato

For 70 years, planning tools for areas dedicated to productive activities (industrial zones, economic activity zones, etc.) have produced spaces that are disconnected from the physical and social specificities of the territory and have contributed to reducing land to a production medium primarily subject to market logic. Today, we can see that these tools are not fit for their purpose: territorial development. The aim of this thesis is to consider an alternative approach that allows for the development of planning tools capable of establishing a relationship that maintains and enhances territorial resources.

Faced with the inadequate planning of productive activities for the sustainable development of the region, the thesis proposes to trace the genealogy of the ‘territorialist’ approach, which aims to establish a synergistic relationship between production and regional resources. A ‘eutopic’ approach that returns to the territory and, by taking into account the inseparable link between social and environmental challenges, makes it possible, on the one hand, to re-establish a relationship with natural resources and respect their ecological cycles and rhythms and, on the other hand, to identify elements of a response to the social crisis.

Following a critical introduction to the relationship between productive activities and the territory, the argument is developed in four parts:
The first three parts follow a genealogical approach and show how the concepts of this approach have evolved and transformed, adapting to different contexts and answering the question of why and how these theoretical transfers came about. Finally, the fourth part of the thesis traces the influence and original development of this approach in France today: the aim of this last part is to open up strategies for envisaging a productive system capable of developing the territory over the long term.