SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND SPATIAL PROCESSES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE TURIN URBAN SYSTEM

caused by processes of industrial growth and concentration. It is a case which is remarkable for both the speed of growth and the mono-sectorial nature of the economic system. Turin is the home of FIAT and manufacturing industry still dominates the economic life of the system (almost 50% of total number of jobs).

During the study period population, boosted by massive immigration, increased from 1230000 in 1950 to 2120000 in 1980.

Three fundamental factors have triggered the growth of the Turin urban system since 1950:

- a political factor, concerning national decisions on where to locate the post-war development;

- an economic factor generating labour demand, based on the presence in the Turin area of a well established production system (metal-working car indus-tries) and on the building industry which offered a first employment opportuni-ty for many immigrants;

- a demographic factor, which produced massive immigration into the area.

The resulting process of growth can be outlined as follows:

(i) socio-economic growth of the city,

(ii) subsequent socio-economic growth affecting the surrounding zones of the city along with the transfer of industrial jobs from Turin to the inner rings, (iii) the relative socio-economic decline of the marginal (outer) zones.

Two main effects of the above process were:

(i) expansion of the Turin conurbation in an "oil-spot" form;

(ii) rarefication of population and jobs in outer marginal areas.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND SPATIAL PROCESSES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE TURIN URBAN SYSTEM

Introduction

Although simplified, an explanatory analysis of these processes can be provided in terms of "open city", "transient city" and "closed city" which are concepts referred to by Papageorgiou (1983) in his interpretation of the urbanisation process (cf. Bertuglia et al., 1983). Briefly, these concepts relate to abstract urban

156 C. S. Bertuglia et al.

situations in which: (i) land-values and urban density become higher as a result of the inmigration produced by the economic take-off in the city (open city); (ii) inmigration slows down, utility increases, and both urban densities and land values begin to increase also in the urban fringe (transient city); (iii) inmigration stops, whereas the increase in utility and the suburbanisation continue (closed system).

First phase: an open system (1951-1960)

1951-1960 was the period of "take-off'' in Turin. The rapid economic growth generated a strong inmigration flow (both from outside the study area and from the marginal areas of the system itself) which created profound modifications in the socio-economic structure of the system; the population and number of jobs rose by around 400000, respectively (cf. Fig. la and b).

This socio-economic development, which was concentrated mainly in the city of Turin, triggered the spatial expansion of the system. This initially occurred along two main exit directions from Turin (towards the south-west and north-east, where two new large manufacturing plants were sited). This can be ex-plained to a large extent by: (i) the strong inter-industrial links in the industrial sector which in this phase were essentially "mono-sectorial" (manufacturing industries, in particular metal-working), and (ii) the radial structure of the com-munication network.

The residential development basically followed that of industrial activity al-though its spread outwards from the city seems to be slower than that of the economic activities (cf. Fig. lb).

Second phase: a transient system (1961-1970)

In this phase the spatial spread of population and economic activities reached its highest level, and the rate of change slowed down. The result was a fast and chaotic process of urbanisation, initially in the first and then in the second ring.

The process of industrial location in this period had a strong impact on the spatial development in general. It acted directly through the siting of new industries (in the major towns of the first ring and later in the second) and the induced residential growth (i.e. the housing necessary for workers). Indirectly this pro-cess of polarisation produced development around the towns and diffusion along the main communication routes along with filling up the remaining free space (see Fig. 1 c and d).

In addition to the growing importance of road as opposed to the rail-based transport, the building of new routes out of the city in the north and east, influenced industrial location significantly-although all the main exit routes from the city were affected by both economic and residential development practically concurrently. The building dynamics was also very strong and was favoured by the lack of incisive control over land-use. (Housing investments were 24 % higher in the second than in the first phase.)

In 1971 the city and the first two rings had a rate of vacancy very close to zero, whereas the zones in the third ring had a significantly higher value (this was due

SHPR 2 (1985)

SHPR 2 (1985)

la. Jobs

le. Jobs

le. Jobs

The spatial dynamics of the Turin urban system 157

First phase

lb. Population densities

Second phase

ld. Population densities

Third phase

lf. Population densities Jobs Population

0-20%

•• u 21%-50%

• 0 ^>50%

Fig. 1. Percentage increase of jobs (percentage values) and population densities (weighted values) in the study area during the three phases of development, illustrating the speed of growth of these phenomena.

158 C. S. Bertuglia et al.

to the depopulation of these zones as well as to the building of second homes in certain of them).

Third phase: a closed system (1971-1980)

In this phase the socio-economic development slowed down while spatial expan-sion continued. Inmigration ceased and the birthrate began to fall. This develop-ment affected the zones in the second rings more than previously. The economic growth occurred prevalently in the service sector. However, the service expan-sion did not benefit as much as might be expected from the scale of industrial growth, due to the negative effects of the too fast and chaotic development of the past decades (in the city, service jobs increased by about 57 000 of which 50 000 were in the high-level services). (See Fig. 1 e and f.)

The principal problems originating from these negative effects are:

(i) disequilibrium of social services in the city and certain peripheral areas -both in terms of the kind of services provided and their spatial destribution;

(ii) shortage of housing-mostly in the first ring- (represented by a gap between demand and supply, which was aggravated by new regulations in the rental sector) along with a deterioration in the condition of existing housing (physical and functional obsolesence);

(iii) traffic congestion-arising from the inefficiency of the radial system of communication-and a reduced accessibility from the outer areas to the services located in the city;

(iv) a disorganised pattern of land-use in the areas affected by the "oil-spot"

pattern of urban sprawl.