Transizione post-industriale e ristrutturazione economica ed urbana. Il ruolo transnazionale di Bilbao.

In this study the Author deals with the globalization of Bilbao in the post-fordist transition : still current period of restructuring in the context of the new internationalization of Basque economy. I focused the work to the foreign trade of the city and the region as well as the global activities of Bilbao's local bank. In short, I study the specific processes through which Bilbao has become and is becoming part of global circuits, but I also pointed out that such global linkages could be considered the only basis to explain Bilbao's urban development : global flows must be studied in the context of broader developments at the local scale to get the reach of globalization. Globalization acquires specific meaning when it is considered within such plurality of forces ( the city,the region,the nation-state,the global economy) acting at various spatial scales. It does not consist only of relations or flows among structures or territories : rather the ways structures are changed in the globalizing process and the ways in which territories become embedded in such networks of relations.