Voices Behind Territories: How Vulnerability is Framed and Addressed in Multilevel Governance Systems

This paper investigates how municipalities equip themselves to address territorial vulnerabilities that become particularly visible during external crises. Such crises are often not local in origin - such as health or economic shocks, or hydrogeological risks -but have significant impacts at the local level. The main objective of the paper is to analyse how local politicians frame territorial vulnerability and respond to emergencies within municipalities embedded in complex multilevel governance (MLG) systems. Particular attention is paid to how these dynamics unfold in rural, peripheral, and demographically declining municipalities, where territorial vulnerability intersects with limited administrative capacity and longstanding urban–rural disparities. To address these issues, the study employs a qualitative content analysis of 80 semi-structured interviews with mayors and municipal councillors in Italy. The municipalities were selected on the basis of a prior quantitative assessment of territorial vulnerability across approximately 8,000 Italian municipalities, allowing the study to qualitatively explore the “voices behind the numbers”. The analysis, conducted using MaxQDA software, focuses on the interpretative frames through which local political actors make sense of vulnerability, assign responsibility, and mobilise responses across different levels of governance. By examining local political narratives, the paper contributes to the literature on territorial vulnerability, crisis management, and multilevel governance, highlighting the pivotal role of local leadership in shaping resilience strategies.