2026-10-14T18:14:11Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33963248 2026-09-22T08:34:49Z category_12 category_15 category_272 category_45 category_931 category_64 category_132 portal_87 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Last-resort Europe in rural Italy: territorial vulnerability and conditional delegation of EU competencies Vincenzo Memoli (5600381) Cell Biology Neuroscience Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified Sociology Information Systems not elsewhere classified Cancer Infectious Diseases Euroscepticism territorial vulnerability rural peripheries last-resort support multilevel governance geography of discontent <p>In Italy’s structurally fragile rural peripheries, citizens do not simply reject the European Union (EU); in the most vulnerable of these territories, they exhibit what we term ‘last – resort support’. Drawing on post-2024 electoral survey data linked to municipal indicators of vulnerability and rurality, we show that the most fragile rural areas exhibit lower levels of institutional Euroscepticism and a greater willingness to delegate power to Brussels, particularly in sovereignty-related domains. This pattern emerges specifically where high vulnerability coincides with high rurality. We document this territorially specific configuration of conditional delegation as a descriptive form of last-resort support, contributing to debates on territorial politics, multilevel governance and the geography of EU discontent.</p> 2026-09-22T08:34:49Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.33963248.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Last-resort_Europe_in_rural_Italy_territorial_vulnerability_and_conditional_delegation_of_EU_competencies/33963248 CC BY 4.0