Abstract

On the background of contemporary rescaling process and of the current broad rethinking of some relevant concepts, such as "region", "territory", "locality", "space", the case of the Baltic Sea Macro-Region (and of the related place-based EU successful "experimentalist" strategy) highlights the emerging of "soft spaces" as new forms of territorial organizations. By using a biological metaphor these soft spaces may be intended as "synaptic spaces" clearly claiming for a radical shift in planning approaches, whose features are explored by highlighting the role both of images/ imaginaries and historical/geographical/cultural roots, to be used (re-interpreted) in the de-construction/reconstruction of the contemporary European spatiality.