A new urban question

Contemporary processes of urban transformation like the concentration of a large part of the population in highly urbanised areas, the trade-off between environmental costs and the social advantages of increased mobility and the connection between new forms of multiple deprivation and spatial segregation, show how the new urban question may be defined and how this requires research efforts and experimentation not just in the field of urban planning alone. In the past other changes in the economy, society and the environment have led to the formulation of innovative metaphors for the comprehension of urbanisation processes. With his considerable experience which includes planning analyses such as that of Grand Paris and the Veneta Region, Bernardo Secchi underlines how these metaphors can be used as a means to generate and transfer knowledge across the disciplines called upon to address the new urban question.