Prolific, but undemanding. The state and the post-disaster reconstruction of a small regional capital: the case of L’Aquila, Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper presents and discusses the state post-disaster reconstruction intervention (SPDRI) of the city of L'Aquila, Italy, after the 2009 earthquake. The paper argues that SPDRIs are of great interest for the study of the state and, more in particular, of the refashioning of state actions at a time of widening spatial divides and localized crisis. It also argues that SPDRIs and other interventions can be characterized as state projects and should be studied as such at the crossroads of a variety of scientific debates also by looking at their complex relation with the political economies of the places involved. Based on these considerations, the paper looks at the evolution of the successive multi-level inter-governmental relations arrangements (IGRAs) mobilized in L'Aquila's reconstructions and to their outcomes in terms of three critical dimensions: rescaling, governance and spatial reconfiguration. Based on the evidence the paper argues that the role of the state cannot be underestimated, that the conditions for the implementation and success of state projects depend on a variety of preconditions and that a high level of state mobilization can come hand in hand with the absence of a consistent and ambitious state project.