Regional Resilience: Lessons from a Region Affected by Multiple Shocks

This chapter analyses decision-making in a multi-level governance (MLG) framework in the case of emergency and recovery from an earthquake arising the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy in 2012. While the literature has pointed to the importance of two levels of government in resilience from disasters, namely the national and the local one, this study shows the role of intermediate levels of government, particularly the regional level. This Italian region has been affected by various shocks, mainly the 2008 financial crisis which was very close to the earthquake. Nevertheless, the region has been resilient, thanks to a specific governance, attention to social cohesion, taking all the parts of the regional system into account, and learning capacity.