Climate and coasts: transdisciplinary research practices for adaptation to climate change in italian coastal territories. – The contribution presents the first results of the Research Project of National Interest PNRR 2022 on the contrast to the effects of climate change on Italian coastal geosystems, entitled “From the Beaches to the Coasts: towards an Integrated Coast Protection”. The PRIN involves a group of researchers from different SSD (lawyers, geographers, urban economists and statisticians) and Italian universities (Bocconi, Cassino, Iuav, Roma Tre, Urbino). The first results that will be illustrated in the article concern the design of collaborative research practices and transdisciplinary open science in the field of integrated coastal zone management and the Atlas of sustainability and integrated coastal management in Italy.

Public Housing as Multidimensional Social Infrastructure: The Case of Taverna del Ferro. – This article examines public housing as a multidimensional social infrastructure, challenging the unidimensional interpretations that continue to shape public debate and policy. To capture the variety of social infrastructures operating within complex urban contexts, it proposes a multidimensional analytical framework articulated through a two-axis conceptual matrix (material/immaterial; universal/situated). Based on ethnographic research conducted in Taverna del Ferro, a large public housing complex in Naples currently undergoing a PNRR-funded regeneration project, the study shows how social infrastructures emerge from the interplay of care practices, political resistance, local identities, and institutional interventions. The case demonstrates that public housing embodies political, symbolic, and reproductive potential that must be recognised to design regeneration processes genuinely grounded in local contexts.

The memory of water. Hydrosocial fragility and urbanisation in Cagliari. – In Italy, the modern abstraction of human beings from the environment has led to a strict technicist management of natural resources and to a clear separation between urban and social policies, not entirely overcome by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). In particular, urban strategies struggle to reason about the role of water in the territorial system, relegating it to technical risk management interventions. From the debate around the mesological approach, various declinations of the relationship between human presence and water outline an often-chaotic palimpsest of plans and visions of urban space.
The contribution addresses the case study of the Cagliari municipality of Pirri, in the relationship between the historical condition of hydrogeological and social fragility and the new urban strategies to contrast risk. This systemisation is possible by adopting a reading of Pirri as a hydro-social territory, which allows us to critically reconstruct the history of the hydro-social fragility of this territory and consequently to re-read past and future planning policies.

The Rome of “great events”: mapping and diachronic analysis at the city-territory scale. The impact of a century and a half of extraordinary interventions. – This survey offers an accurate analysis of the major events held in Rome since the beginning of the 20th century. The time under review starts with the 1900 Jubilee, when the organization of hosting activities was for the first time under the responsibility of Italian authorities with specific economic support for reception facilities, and with the 1908 Olympics, where the planned venue for sporting events anticipates some of the choices made for Rome 1960 Olympics. The latter were strongly advocated by Pope Pius X, but in the end canceled by decision of Giolitti with similar motivations to the “no” expressed by Monti for the Rome 2020 event. The time spans up to the next Jubilee to be held in 2025 with the PNRR- financed projects.
Through a GIS mapping of planned and/or implemented interventions, and a comparative analysis with official ante quem and post quem cartography, the pilot survey aims at highlighting how much and how the “extraordinary” influences the “ordinary”, that is, how much targeted interventions in the city specifically needed for a major event impacts and directs its transformation, pointing out how the “extraordinary” is binding for the “ordinary” in individual case studies.

La produzione letteraria sulle aree marginali italiane è stata particolarmente feconda nell’ultimo decennio, parallelamente a un interesse della politica che si è concretizzato, tra l’altro, in una Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne (SNAI) e in alcuni voci del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR).

The Geographic Dimension of NRRP

NextGenerationEU between pandemic, war, and energy transition. – The energy transition has been strongly questioned by the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The European Green Deal – designed and approved before the Covid-19 pandemic – became fully part of economic recovery program of the pandemic, and the war as well. Actually, the Green Deal becomes one of the fundamental pillars of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Plan, as well as of NextGenerationEU and, consequently, of the various national plans related to it, including the Italian PNRR. As a typical win-win policy, NextGenerationEU must solve the problems related to the economic crisis, and those related to environmental quality, through the energy transition, as well. Obviously, the economic recover does not necessarily fit perfectly into an energy transition program. Actually, the policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions might imply many issues, related to economy and labor policies. Added to this are the socio-economic gaps between the countries that make up the EU, which have produced an energy divide (different levels of energy demand, different efficiency, different composition of primary energy sources), which has also further increased. from the pandemic, which requires a “calibrated” approach. This condition produces a more complex energy transition, and in many countries - especially those with the lowest GDP per capita - it could create obstacles to economic recovery. Although a Just Transition Mechanism has been prepared, precisely to bridge these gaps, the energy transition could be perceived as an external interference and a brake on growth, becoming a lever for forms of nationalism and sovereignty in key anti-European. The proposed work - after analyzing the structure of the energy supply in the EU, highlighting the inconsistencies in it - will address the impact of the Green Deal in the energy transition process associated with the relaunch of the economy.

NRRP and Inland Areas. A Reflection on Inclusion and Cohesion Strategies in tge Grecanica Subregion. – The work aims to analyse the possible role that the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) may have for the Inner Grecanica Area (Calabria Region), in the margins of the work plan implemented by the SNAI (National Strategy for Inner Areas). The objective of this contribution is therefore twofold. On the one hand, to map the main results of the local development plan of the SNAI in the Grecanici territories; on the other hand, to verify the current needs of the area in question within the framework of Missions 4 and 5 of the PNRR, with particular regard to the components related to: i) the strengthening of the supply of educational services linked to the re-appropriation of the Grecanici language and culture; ii) social infrastructures; iii) special interventions for territorial cohesion. Through semi-structured interviews administered to institutional actors and to the component of cultural associations, social promotion, foundations, and non-profit organisations of the local community, an attempt will be made to identify social, educational and cultural developments and marginalities in the Grecanica Area and thus to verify whether they can find a response from the reforms envisaged by the PNRR. By means of GIS mapping, the scientific community and those who are working in the sector will be provided with a picture of the Grecanica area, following the policies launched by the SNAI, from which to reflect on the “reforms” envisaged by the PNRR for the Region of Calabria.

Italian NRRP Leverage in the Energy Transition

Circular economy, institutions and enterprises in post-pandemic transition: two exam-ples in aerospace sector in Italy. – This paper aims to identify and illustrate some factors that have determined in recent years an acceleration of the transition process from the linear economy to the circular one in the European context. Among these factors: the change in attitude towards this issue by the business world, the greater impetus to carry out the transition provided by the institutions, and the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic, which, in addition to a health, economic and social crisis, has been seized, in Europe, as an opportunity for a post-pandemic recovery based on new models of organization of the economy and society. In particular, the latter aspect clearly emerges from the content of the European NextGenerationEU Program, implemented, in the Italian context, by the National Re-covery and Resilience Plan, Italy Tomorrow. The first part of the paper is dedicated to these issues, while the second part exemplifies these arguments with reference to the aerospace industry, in particular by illustrating the cases of two Italian SMEs in the sector that have strongly undertaken the transition process towards the circular economy. The paper concludes with some final considerations, which underline how institutions play a fundamental role in bridging the time gap between the short- and medium-term costs that must be incurred by companies in the transition process to the circular economy, and the long-term economic benefits that the realization of this path entails for the companies themselves.

A un anno dall’approvazione formale da parte della Commissione eu-ropea (20 giugno 2021) del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) predisposto dall’Italia con il preciso obiettivo, come dichiarato nella premessa dal Presidente del Consiglio Mario Draghi, di far ripartire l’Italia fortemente colpita dalla crisi causata dalla pandemia di Covid-19, e di dar vita a «una più ampia e ambiziosa strategia per l’ammodernamento del Paese», aggiornando «le strategie nazionali in tema di sviluppo e mobi-lità sostenibile; ambiente e clima; idrogeno; automotive; filiera della sa-lute», lo scenario e gli obiettivi previsti stanno subendo dei significativi ripensamenti e aggiustamenti alla luce degli impatti derivanti anche dal conflitto russo-ucraino.

The NRRP, going towards Sustainability. Focus on Piedimont. – The role of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), as regards the response that has been created following the pandemic, urges the long-standing processes in European planning. The pandemic has accelerated smart behaviours and the NRRP is the operational means of this programming for the choices that will be made in the next two or three years, which will define Italy’s future in the energy transition as well as some of its important regional specializations. The response to the crisis caused by the SARS-Cov-2 epidemic has accelerated and induced the European Union to respond to the dictates enclosed in the UN 2030 Agenda in response to climate change and the social and economic needs that are considered fundamental for the global stability and peace. From the point of view of sustainability, the data of Piedmont compared to the Italian average attest the Region in 8th place out of 20 Regions (IRES 2020, 2021). The answer largely depends on the indicators chosen. In 2020, the National Table for the implementation of the SNSvS selected 43 indicators in order to monitor the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda. These 43 indicators incorporate some of the Fair and Sustainable Well-being indicators. This ensured greater significance at the national level and allowed greater comparability with the European and international level of the Piedmont Region.

Tourism and territory in NRRP

Potential Impacts of NRRP Investments in Italian Mono-functional or Desertified Realities: Threats and Opportunities. – The contribution aims to reflect on the impact of PNRR plans and programs with particular attention to the sustainability of rural and mountain tourist regions, highlighting territorial criticalities and suggesting greater emphasis on the concept of adaptation and the possible role for activities related to education for the territory. The PNRR provides for a € 6.68 billion loan in the “tourism and culture” sector, which will make it possible to develop innovative actions to implement local development through the new ecological transition criterion. Much emphasis is placed on the digital transition and physical measures of renewal. Many realities of those compatible with these funds fall within rural and mountain areas, often characterized by negative situations up to conditions of real demographic and economic desertification. The poor economic and social sustainability of many peripheral and mono-functional territories, investigated by recent studies in the field, seems to link the transformation of these areas to actions of economic adaptation and diversification linked to climate change, with respect to which climate maps suggest an increase of the impacts in the coming decades. An investment in these areas, perhaps aimed at restoring or physical-functional de-velopment actions, runs the risk of producing little benefits if it is not accompanied by new forms of social, economic and even demographic attractiveness. The systemic vision can make it possible to operate in a more suitable way to the specific local territorial system, while the development of educational paths to the territory open to stakeholders active in the field can increase the possibility of investment success through the sharing and production of open local knowledge to the reproduction and renewal of territorial values as a project for the future of the subjects who live there and who work there.

The Italian Small Islands in the PNRR Missions. A vision of the future. – The paper aims to understand the possible effects of the PNRR on the Italian Small Islands. The relationship between insiders and external actors, as well as the relationship of interdependence with the mainland, highlight the Italian Small Islands as a promising “laboratory” for investigation, not only as case studies but also as a complex and articulated spatial and territorial context in which some of the general dynamics tend to be emphasised. The peripheral dimension of the Italian Small Islands (Turco, 1980) has meant that since the Second World War they have been included among the “underdeveloped areas” and subject to the interventions of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. Within this scenario, the smaller islands were the subject of specific funding or actions, in some cases emphasising their dependence on the mainland. This dependence has also been recorded in the policies of the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI), which classifies island municipalities as peripheral or ultraperipheral, without however taking into account deeper local dynamics that effectively cancel out these conditions of peripheralisation. The PNRR proposes some missions explicitly addressed to small island territories, such as the achievement of a circular economy, forms of development that dialogue between tourism and sustainability, but also more general actions aimed, for example, at the mitigation of territorial gaps. The paper seeks to connect PNRR, tourism development and the challenge of Small Islands’ seasonal geographies.

The Youth of the Inner Areas and the Italian NRRP. – The Italian NRRP provides considerable financial resources to promote a green transition and a digital transformation of people and territories. Young people living in the inner areas of Italy have an opportunity to overcome marginality and become key actors of development, making of diversity an asset rather than a source of inequality and epistemic injustice. Based on these premises, the research illustrates the youth policies and the strategies for inner areas within the framework of the Italian NRRP, then focuses on the peculiarities of young people living in inner areas. The analysis highlights the need to create new jobs in peripheral territories, to make migration an opportunity rather than a necessity. Specifically, it is important to approach the issue of employment in inner areas with the lens of youth policies, that is, by developing bottom-up approaches to discover latent and untapped potential to be used to achieve sustainability.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan: recovery of inner areas for sustainable tourism and economy. – European Commission and European Parliament have issued the Recovery Plan, also called Next Generation EU, to revive the finance and the economy of European countries compromised by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Italian Government has developed a specific plan for the recovery of inner areas with particular attention to the redevelopment of the villages: very emblematic, in this sense, The National Borough Plan, promoted and managed directly by The Italian Ministry of Culture. The Recovery of inner areas perfectly coincides whit the great challenges of contemporary society: ecological transition, climate change, environmental sustainability, better quality of life. Concepts such as slow philosophy, slow food, slow tourism are increasingly popular and form the basis for a profound cultural change, to build a slow life that is more compatible with the needs and sensibilities of humanity.

Waste: the contribution of Zero Waste and geography to the implementation of the PNRR. – Waste is a central problem of global society, capable of deeply undermining the future of the planet. The consumerist mentality and practices are know for guaranteeing productions capable of responding to a growing demand that is ever more diversified. However, less concern has been given to the so-called final ring of the economic system, the one related to waste management. This lack of attention has ensured that a solution to the issue of waste cannot be longer postponed, but has to be considered the starting point for reconsidering the entire process, investing with energy and foresight on the cultural, even before economic, value of circularity, as an alternative to the short-sighted and no long-er sustainable linear model. And it is precisely within this framework, theoretical and practical at the same time, that the PNRR policies must depart and try to be effective, capable of taking up the challenge proposed by Zero Waste: overturn the metaphor of the pyramid and insert in the broad apex a new design of the entire production and consumption chain, at the corporate and domestic, collective and individual, local and global levels. This desirable renewed direction of thought will benefit from the help of geographical reflection, able to propose, thanks to its gaze capable of keeping together different elements and various plans, important concepts and functional criteria to undertake a definitive change of course, towards an effective sustainability.

The Protection and the Development of Mountain Areas in the Perspective of the Italian National Plan of Recovery and Resilience. – In Italy, implementing the cohesion and territorial development strategies displayed by the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) is complex because of its increasing socio-economic divides. In particular, the mountain areas – traditionally left on the margins of the national development strategies – ask for careful consideration. The traumatic experience of the pandemic, the lockdowns and the ecological transition challenge have awakened the political and media attention to these vital but fragile territories that produce natural resources and ecosystem services for the benefit of the whole community. The contribution discusses whether the NRRP contains adequate invest-ment indications and priority of intervention for the protection, long-term development and functional integration of mountain areas with the rest of the national territory. Concerning the methodology, the paper develops a qualitative analysis of the evaluation reports on the NRRP published by some leading mountain associations (UNCEM, ASVIS, INU, CAIRE) and the communication of a specific NRRP call (call “Villages” on Action 2.1 Village Attractiveness) employed to communicate and promote some calls.

The Mission Tourism and Culture in the PNRR: Unrepeatable Opportunity for the Sustainability of Italian Tourist Development. – The pandemic Covid19 has brought down tourism and the Italian Government, thanks to the funds made available by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU programme, has given to this sector a strong boost in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), granting a series of investments and financing useful for a new restarting, included in the culture and tourism mission. The article, therefore, will analyze the main guidelines on which this mission is based, trying to outline the future scenarios, highlighting the costs and benefits for Italy as a whole and for inland areas and old towns, which are currently very compromised due to the sharp demographic decrease and the ageing of the population. The funds available in the PNRR could be used to launch a different phase in Italy’s tourism development, completely overturning the geography of flows that until now have been concentrated on two main routes, namely cities of art and seaside tourism, with consequent environmental and social impacts. In conclusion, the PNRR may constitute a major turning point in this sector, allowing for a spread of tourist flows, easing the impact on the now traditional destinations, but also giving development opportunities to the marginal areas of our country, expanding tourist products vertically and innovating the entire system in a sustainable manner.