Aree interne e loro potenzialità nel panorama italiano e europeo. Introduzione al tema

All European countries have internal areas, but only few of them, as Italy, developed strategic policies and devoted investments concerning the role of urban-rural, small-medium towns, services of general interest within the application of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In the following and by the geographical vision, this topic is summarised in order to open a national debate aiming to overcome the gap between academic and decision making methodological approaches. Starting from both the theme conceptualization in the European language and discourse, internal areas are introduced.