Introduction: Regional Analysis of Complex Socioeconomic Processes. The Role of Local Districts

This book proposes an articulated and multidisciplinary research path that introduces to the potential of adopting territorial statistics, namely those elaborated at the level of Local Labour Systems, for carrying out spatial analysis of apparent and latent interactions between socioeconomic phenomena and environmental dynamics at a sufficiently broad and efficient geographical unit of analysis. This allows to examine in a more exhaustive manner the complexity and non-linearity of several socio-economic and territorial processes and to address the multidimensional concept of sustainability from below. Studies included in this book contribute to an integrated, multidisciplinary reading that covers the three pillars of sustainability. Italy is a relevant case study in this sense and can be assumed as a paradigmatic country also for other advanced European nations that undertook territorial analysis at a very disaggregated spatial level (i.e., UK, Spain, Germany and France among others).