Living in Valbrevenna Today: Urban-Mountain Dynamics within the Greater Genoa. – The concept of “metropolitan mountain”, which has recently gained significant traction in academic discussions, encourages the reflection on the relationship between center and periphery, aiming to transcend traditional oppositions between metropolitan and mountain areas. Moving away from the city, the territorial processes reveal increasingly distinct dynamics that may offer valuable insights into the potential of these mountainous regions within the metropolitan context. In this article, the municipality of Valbrevenna (in the Metropolitan City of Genoa) is studied to explore the territorial re-configurations of cotemporary lives, moving beyond dichotomous perspectives to embrace a nuanced view of the social, economic, and demographic complexities that define this territory. Based on the results of extensive qual-itative field research, this study offers contextualized reflections aimed at stimulating further discussion on the specific configurations of a “metropolitan mountain” within the Genoa area also for what concerns the challenges offered by the climate changes.

Comics, rusty stones and resilient hearts. Graphic novels and practices of spatial re-significance in roman peripheries at night. – This paper is the first result of a wider research project dedicated to the depiction of peripherical and marginal areas in comic books and graphic novels. As such, the contribution is consistent with the perspective of critical geopolitics and focused on the analysis of three graphic novels that, beyond their stylistic and narratives differences, are all set in the same “chronotope”: the Roman periphery at night. Thus, the paper draws from night-studies, socio-geographical theo-ries of space-production, and previous literature dedicated to comics geography. The three works are then presented as divergent narratives that stands against the negative depiction of periphery in mainstream media and their demonization of alternative and conflictual social practices, such as rave parties, graffiti, and house squatting.

Inside the Margins and Marginality: (Condi-)Visions and Scientific-Artistic Practices in Suburban Contexts. – The contribution aims at analysing areas which, due to characteristics of housing discomfort, are labelled as marginal spaces of the city. After exploring the concepts of margin and marginality with reference to two areas in the eastern suburb of Naples, analysed as urban fragments in a new centre-periphery relationship, the paper focuses on a project recently developed intersecting creative art practices and geographic research. The results of site-specific experiences – conducted by involving inhabitants, scholars and artists-in-residence in on-site workshops and theatre works – have contributed to a co-construction of a new knowledge of places. Aware of the methodological difficulties and limita-tions underlying geographic-artistic collaborations, starting from sites, and integrating everyday narratives and images has allowed to enter inside the margins, trying to contribute exploring the creative potential of the fragments beyond the labels of territorial and symbolic marginality.

Territorial disparities and SNAI criteria: re-thinking the classification criteria of inner peripheral areas– The concept of periphery can be defined at different scales (cities, regions, states) and according to multiple aspects which, over time, have attenuated the meaning of spatial position to favor the condition of socioeconomic marginality. In the regional context, there is a tendency to underline the decline in population and economic competitiveness, and the social decline of a territory in terms of poor relationships, often attributing them to the lack of opportunities and services, other times to poor accessibility. Some of these new meanings have been adopted by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI in Italian matter), launched in 2012 and revised in 2020, to identify and classify peripheral municipalities, i.e. those municipalities that suffer from the distance from some public basic services offered by the larger cities. This conceptualization has stimulated a large debate on the choice of classification criteria and applied methodology that directly influence the elaboration of territorial rebalancing policies. Considering this debate, the authors of this paper have analyzed the criteria underlying the SNAI classification as a pretext for exploring the different narratives of peripheral areas that have been following one another for several decades, sometimes overlapping, other times integrating and flanking each other. According to all this, the authors propose a revision of SNAI criteria and methodology to consider the accessibility of areas and their resources and endowments, recognizing the inner and peripheral areas as a place of opportunities.

“Oltre la strada”, within the neighborhood. Grassroots initiatives for the urban periphery in Fiumicello, Brescia. – The paper deals with the urban regeneration of the western periphery of Brescia (Lombardy’s second largest city). More specifically, the work focuses on “Oltre la Strada”, one of the winning projects of the “Bando Periferie” in 2016. Conceived as a tool against urban decay, the project seems to have only partially achieved the object of solving the urban fragmentation, and there are still several doubts and concerns among residents and local associations from the area where the redevelopment processes took place. In particular, the paper analyzes the case of Fiumicello – a neighborhood characterized by an industrial past, immigration and grassroots initiatives – and of the association Via Milano 59, which carries out every day the mission of encouraging dialogue and filling in the institutional gaps in this small neighborhood.