Covid-19 and multilevel territorial governance. Transcalar patterns, frictions of competencies and planning conflicts in Italy

The chapter aims at exploring to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the long-entrenched relations among the different actors involved in multilevel territorial governance, by scrutinizing the frictions and conflicts of competencies that emerged during the health crisis at the centre–periphery interplay. Based on a qualitative document analysis methodology, the work critically scrutinizes if de/recentralization patterns, transcalar/multilevel governance dynamics as well as interregional and/or inter-municipal cooperation have been reshaped (reinforced or reduced) by COVID-19 in Italy. In particular, the chapter investigates some meaningful examples in four Italian regions (Marche, Campania, Calabria, Sicilia) which have been selected owing to the contrasts that emerged during the pandemic in terms of central/local competencies