Università come attore di sviluppo locale, cambiamento strutturale e riequilibrio territoriale

The article proposes an analysis of the economic impact that the university can generate on the territory, focusing on the various channels of development transmission. In considering the literature that has studied the relationship between the university and innovation in recent years, the article draws attention to two critical aspects. The first is constituted by the existence of ‘bridging activities’ between the university and the territory, which are by no means taken for granted and on which the real extent of the impact ultimately depends. The second is the need for greater awareness on the part of university governance of its own active role in local development, and more specifically in the attraction of talents, that is becoming increasingly central in the knowledge economy. In other words, it is a question of bringing out the political responsibility that the university’s choices have in the structural change of the local economy, including the now crucial issue of rebalancing the critical factors of development for peripheral territories.