Tuscany beyond Tuscany: Rethinking the City from the Periphery

Although Tuscany is frequently depicted in movies, postcards, magazines and advertisements, a large part of the region is almost never represented – that of the peripheries and suburban sprawl. Most Tuscans reside in these areas, far from the refined land- and cityscapes of the old towns and hilly countryside. Despite its relevance, suburban Tuscany is largely neglected both by politicians and scholars. The myth of historic centers and of the Tuscan countryside, now purified and museumized, characterizes this alternate space as a dystopian world, even though it can be argued to be the most lively and dynamic part of the region, where new forms of urbanity are being developed. These aspects, however, still have to be discovered and conveyed. In order to better understand and govern the new city, it is necessary to challenge and dismantle the ideology of the old city. This book is the fruit of thirteen years of empirical work on Tuscan peripheries and of more than five years of analysis on the negative effects produced by the myth of Tuscany on regional policy-making. The first four chapters of the volume deconstruct the discourse on space in Tuscany from four different disciplinary angles. The next three chapters reformulate the concept of the city, starting from a long-term empirical work on the social life and built environment of the Florence peripheries.