The Centre-Periphery Dialectics in Eastern Sicily Retail System. An Exploratory Research

Abstract

This paper aims at scrutinizing from an historical perspective the deep transformations shaped by retail spaces and new consumption patterns challenging long-entrenched dichotomies, such as the centre-periphery one. In particular, the exploratory research explores the territorial reconfiguration of the main Eastern Sicily metropolitan areas, Catania and Messina, from the lens of the retail geography, namely after the diffusion of new suburban retail formats which have completely upset deeply-rooted relations between urban core and suburban rings.

Keywords

• centre-periphery dialectics
• urban sprawl
• suburban retail format
• historical centre
• Sicily