Regional Cooperation and Multilevel Governance: a Matrix for Evaluating a Smart Development

Territorial cooperation and the rethinking of multilevel governance have become highly topical in Europe (Murphy 2008; Faludi, 2010; 2012; Eversa, et al., 2013). In fact, local governments have been forced to adopt new strategies to increase their territorial competitiveness both as a result of austerity policies implemented following the financial crisis of 2008 and the growing demand for quality by the community itself. However, interest in territorial cooperation has led to inevitable effects on local and regional governance and, with it, the political decision-making entity, causing it to think strategically and dynamically about urban planning codes, which, in turn, do not consider the complexity of interacting factors on the structure of cities and their gravitation areas. Starting from these assumptions, the aim of this paper is to (i) introduce the concept of territorial cooperation and multilevel governance, focusing then on its excursus evolution, (ii) analyze the relationship between polycentric regional development, regional cohesion and political entity; (iii) create a set of indicators to measure regional cooperation. Furthermore, the study is applied to an Italian context which provides the initial input for a discussion on smart regional cooperation