Reti di città e creazione di valore pubblico

City networks are systems of relations through which cities can cooperate in order to face the challenges of economic development, social protection, and environmental sustainability. Consequently, city networking assists local authorities in carrying out their most distinctive function, i.e. the creation of public value in a financially sustainable way, and deserve special attention in their systems of governance, especially in urban strategic planning. In this framework, the aim of this paper is twofold: on a theoretical level, it intends to contribute to the definition and classification of city networks, analyzing their role in creating local public value and emphasizing their importance in urban strategic planning; on a practical level, it assesses the inclusion of city networks in the urban strategic plans of a significant sample of the major Italian cities, identifying some critical points and providing some useful suggestions for the future.