Se quarant'anni vi sembran pochi

The author highlights how the social and academic relevance of urban sociology has changed; after years of centrality (both scientific and not), now it must struggle to gain visibility. Starting from an excursus from the 1950s, the author individuates the topics on which the Italian sociology of territory has emerged and assumed a clear identity on the international debate. The Italian urban sociology was born and developed as a tool to provide institutions, social movements and citizens with the knowledge to face the perverse but not unpredictable effects of new modernization, but now it seems absent or ineffective. [Publishers' text].