Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the results of the research done by a work group, from the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning for the Department of Economic Development and Work of the Autonomous Province of Trento (APT). It also presents a reflection on the experimentation performed, focusing on the meanings, instruments, rules, and operating processes of the meta-valuation process set up to strengthen the integration of policies/actors/levels of governance in the territorial planning practices in the Province. The book examines the results of the experimentation performed with the objective of putting questions up for discussion, which are still relevant, on the meaning of territorial evaluation practices in the processes of planning. It presents the process of making new perspectives of territorial governance to be implemented through the application of Territorial Integrated Evaluation (TIE) methodology in the Valley Communities (VCs).