When consultancy becomes substitute power: reflections from two planning processes in non-metropolitan Italy

This practice review reflects on two connected planning processesin northern Lazio, Italy, where an external project manager becamecentral to coordination. Drawing on three years of university invol-vement, contemporaneous observation and process documents, itexamines both the enabling and constraining effects of consultant-led planning. Consultant influence is interpreted as co-produced bylimited public capacity, political practices and project-based fund-ing. The expression ‘substitute power’ describes the point at whichuseful external coordination begins to occupy functions publicinstitutions need to retain, while also considering the university’sown embedded and ambivalent role.