This article analyzes inner and marginal territories in four Italian peripheral contexts by first discussing some of the results and future steps of the “B4R Branding4Resilience” research project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research from 2020 to 2023. The overall research is based on three phases: (1) the exploration phase to analyze socio-economic data and territorial dynamics; (2) the co-design phase involving local actors to develop ideas for a selected pilot case; (3) the co-visioning phase where a future transformative perspective for the whole area was shared with the institutions. The article focuses on phase 1 and presents some first results achieved by the application of a methodological approach based on the integration of different qualitative and quantitative tools and methods. The results outline the exploration of the four selected territories through data analyses and mapping, perceptive-narrative explorations, field research, and explorative designs. The concept of peripherality is addressed in a critical way, trying to go beyond standardized definitions, including interdisciplinarity as an essential tool for territorial enhancement and branding. The main interpretation findings not only outline possible strategies and actions for the four analyzed inner territories, but also foster the application of the proposed methodological approach in other complex socio-economic contexts.
When Covid-19 arrived in Europe from the far East, the media and experts in economics and social sciences noticed that it was the expected discontinuity in the socio-economic development process. Really, the current phase has spread since the 1960s, when the application of econometric worldwide-spread development model was going to produce social inequalities, and consumption of physical, social, and cultural resources. Some places in Italy, far from the erosive and urban context and erosive metropolitan areas, are currently isolated seeds of a new cycle of life, because of the local community identity and the strong link between human, cultural, and natural components are currently working together towards a new development model. Starting from a 20-year research about Local Cultural Systems in Sicily, the research group has defined and tested the cultural dimension of development, and affirmed that the transition to a culture-based growth, as defined by UNESCO, should be the solution for overcoming the erosive Anthropocene era. In western Sicily, the Belice Valley is working on cultural transition thanks to relationships between cultural heritage, identity, and settlement network, that we have designed as a Territorial Archipelago. The research demonstrates that local communities will innovate if they rethink the development model and reshape spatial patterns and economic networks focusing on the creativity-driven vision.
PrefaceThis book is a result of the application of the Fluid City Protocol to Sicily and Malta coastal areas regeneration in the project called "Water And Territorial policiEs for integRation oF multisectoRial develOpmeNT" (in acronym WATERFRONT), funded by the Italia-Malta Operative Programme 2007-2013.The project (completed in 2013) aimed to define common guidelines, strategies and operational tools for planning coastal areas, based on cross-border exchange of experiences in Malta-Sicily for the dissemination of good practices in order to harmonize both the technical planning and political visions, thereby improving the conditions for the conservation, transformation, and development of the coastal tracts of the provinces of Trapani and Palermo and Malta. The strengthening of the infrastructural nodes and their functional, urban and social connection to the territories enhance the development of effective policies and programmes able to build a strategic platform that unifies the islands in the Mediterranean area.The exchange of experiences and the dissemination of good practices among the partners involved (University of Malta, University of Palermo and Local Authorities) improved techniques of territorial planning and evaluation at national, regional and local levels and improved the ability to apply environmental policies and programmes for risk prevention.The evaluation and interpretation of interventions already done and the analysis of risks and opportunities offered by dynamic transformations of the waterfront, already activated in Palermo, Trapani and the northern coast of Malta Island was the beginning of the project, representing itself as a model for all of the border of the Mediterranean. The result of the project contains three active scenarios for Malta, Trapani and Palermo, in which every site performs a specific approach to waterfront regeneration; however, every transborder experimental site is the representation of a specific reality about waterfront.The first is the northern coast of the Malta Island in which urban development opportunities define a context of integration between early cities and new settlements. The second is the periurban coast of Trapani that contains high natural qualities, but the natural heritage is not put to correct use, in respect of nature and v
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