Milan city-region: Is it still competitive and charming? Pathways to creative and knowledge-based regions ISBN 978-90-75246-64-3 Printed in the Netherlands by Xerox Service Center, Amsterdam Edition: 2007 Cartography lay-out and cover: Puikang Chan, AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam All publications in this series are published on the ACRE-website http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/acre and most are available on paper at: Dr. Olga Gritsai, ACRE project manager University of Amsterdam Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt) Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 NL-1018 VZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel. +31 20 525 4044 +31 23 528 2955 Fax +31 20 525 4051 E-mail: [email protected] Copyright © Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt), University of Amsterdam 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. Milan city-region: Is it still competitive and charming? Pathways to creative and knowledge-based regions ACRE report 2.12 Enzo Mingione Elena Dell’Agnese Silvia Mugnano Marianna d’Ovidio Bertram Niessen Carla Sedini Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union Amsterdam 2007 AMIDSt, University of Amsterdam ACRE ACRE is the acronym for the international research project Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the enlarged Union. The project is funded under the priority 7 ‘Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-based society within the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU (contract no. 028270). Coordination: Prof. Sako Musterd University of Amsterdam Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies (AMIDSt) Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 NL-1018 VZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Participants: Amsterdam (Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Marco Bontje ~ Olga Gritsai ~ Heike Pethe ~ Bart Sleutjes ~ Wim Ostendorf ~ Puikang Chan Barcelona (Centre de Recerca en Economia del Benestar – Centre for Research in Welfare Economics, University of Barcelona, Spain) Montserrat Pareja Eastaway ~ Joaquin Turmo Garuz ~ Montserrat Simó Solsona ~ Lidia Garcia Ferrando ~ Marc Pradel i Miquel Birmingham (Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham, UK) Alan Murie ~ Caroline Chapain ~ John Gibney ~ Austin Barber ~ Jane Lutz ~ Julie Brown Budapest (Institute of Geography, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) Zoltán Kovács ~ Zoltán Dövényi ~ Tamas Egedy ~ Attila Csaba Kondor ~ Balázs Szabó Helsinki (Department of Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland) Mari Vaattovaara ~ Tommi Inkinen ~ Kaisa Kepsu Leipzig (Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography, Germany) Joachim Burdack ~ Günter Herfert ~ Bastian Lange Munich (Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Germany) Günter Heinritz ~ Sabine Hafner ~ Manfred Miosga ~ Anne von Streit Poznan (Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland) Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz ~ Jerzy J. Parysek ~ Tomasz Kaczmarek ~ Michal Meczynski Riga (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia) Anders Paalzow ~ Diana Pauna ~ Vjacheslav Dombrovsky ~ Roberts Kilis ~ Arnis Sauka Sofia (Centre for Social Practices, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) Evgenii Dainov ~ Vassil Garnizov ~ Maria Pancheva ~ Ivan Nachev ~ Lilia Kolova Toulouse (Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban and Sociological Studies, University of Toulouse-II Le Mirail, Toulouse, France) Denis Eckert ~ Christiane Thouzellier ~ Elisabeth Peyroux ~ Michel Grossetti ~ Mariette Sibertin-Blanc ~ Frédéric Leriche ~ Florence Laumière ~ Jean-Marc Zuliani ~ Corinne Siino ~ Martine Azam Milan (Department of Sociology and Social research, University degli Studi di Milan Bicocca, Italy) Enzo Mingione ~ Francesca Zajczyk ~ Elena dell’Agnese ~ Silvia Mugnano Dublin (School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland) Declan Redmond ~ Brendan Williams ~ Niamh Moore ~ Veronica Crossa ~ Martin Sokol Table of Contents Executive summary.......................................................................................................................... 1 1 National background ................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Urban and territorial area........................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Socio-demographic structure .................................................................................................. 7 1.3 House conditions and policies .............................................................................................. 10 1.4 Economic development......................................................................................................... 12 1.5 The current economic situation: The emerging of the creative industries and knowledge economy ............................................................................................................. 14 1.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 17 2 Introduction to the region........................................................................................................ 21 2.1 Geographical/Demographical context................................................................................... 21 2.2 Main economic specializations............................................................................................. 24 2.3 Position in European networks and hierarchy....................................................................... 26 3 Milan metropolitan area - Historical developments ............................................................. 29 3.1 Milan metropolitan area at the beginning of the XX century ............................................... 29 3.2 Milan between fascist movement and resistance .................................................................. 29 3.3 Il dopoguerra – the post war ................................................................................................. 30 3.4 Conclusions........................................................................................................................... 33 4 Current situation of Milan metropolitan area....................................................................... 35 4.1 Recent economic development ............................................................................................. 35 4.1.1 Main trends in manufacturing and services......................................................................... 35 4.1.2 International economic relationships................................................................................... 36 4.1.3 Entrepreneurial dynamism .................................................................................................. 37 4.1.4 Female enterprises............................................................................................................... 37 4.1.5 Immigrants enterprises ........................................................................................................ 38 4.2 Evolution of the labour force ................................................................................................ 38 4.3 Economic profile................................................................................................................... 39 4.3.1 Tertiary sector ..................................................................................................................... 40 4.3.2 Industrial districts and meta-districts................................................................................... 42 4.4 Population composition, recent dynamics and social polarization ....................................... 43 4.5 Housing market and urban policies....................................................................................... 46 4.6 Infrastructures ....................................................................................................................... 49 4.7 Conclusions........................................................................................................................... 51 5 The creative knowledge economy in the metropolitan area of Milan.................................. 53 5.1 The creative knowledge economy of Milan.......................................................................... 53 5.1.1 The practical definition of creative knowledge economy ................................................... 53 5.1.2 The measure of cultural economy: some considerations about data on employment ......... 53 5.1.3 The creative knowledge economy of the metropolitan area of Milan................................. 54 5.1.4 Gender composition ............................................................................................................ 55 5.2 Soft factors in Milan ............................................................................................................. 56 5.2.1 Milan as the industrial capital of Italy................................................................................