Climate change as an opportunity for a new “habitability” of the mountains: the Orobic massif system. – Rising temperatures in many cities are altering their habitability, leading to the return of urban populations to the countryside and generating new opportunities for mountain areas. To trigger a new habitability of these areas, it is necessary to have a more correct geo-historical and territorial reading of them. Geo-historical and territorial interpretation based on the systemic culture of massive and the reticularity between different valleys. The Orobic Massif is an exemplary case of such dynamics and leads to the development of a change of perspective, bringing to light the material and intangible heritage still widely diffused and contrasting its valley disarticulation. To guarantee the habitability of the mountain it is also necessary to activate co-designing actions that transform the inhabit-ants into stakeholders in the role of planners and evaluators. The contri-bution presents the first results emerging from the research conducted by the authors within the framework of the PRIN 2022: “Governance for mountain reticularity: co-design and activation of a “contratto d’abitare” for the territorial regeneration of the Seriana Valley”.

Olympic mega-events and digital urbanism: the case Tokyo 2020. – This article analyses the relation between Olympic mega-events and digital urbanism, by underlying the role of megaevent as accelerator of urban experimentation and the implications of the pervasive spread of smart technologies and digital platforms on the transformative processes of the spatial, social and political urban landscape. By drawing on the case study of Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the attention is focused on three main and intertwined transformative dimensions, which characterize the spatial techno-politics of the digital city: the production of urban space, in its immaterial and material dimensions; the mechanisms of urban governance, and of its governmental logics of control and regulation; and the question of urban citizenship and the transnational fight for the right to the city in anti-Olympics movements.

Urban green spaces as proximity tourism destinations: the potential of the Maredolce - La Favara complex between care practices and heritage enhancement. – Proximity tourism allows residents to experience familiar places in new ways and to perceive otherness in an elsewhere that does not imply distance. In urban settings, green spaces offer an evocative appeal that can be emphasized when combined with interest in the presence of heritage emergencies. Therefore, it is possible to reflect on the potential of green areas in urban settings and the implications for tourism and sustainability challenges. Green spaces in cities generate crucial connections that strengthen communities while contributing to local development. This article aims to analyze the role of heritage communities in the care and enhancement of urban green spaces as destinations with the aim of promoting critical tools useful for more equitable and sustainable planning of green space enhancement strategies for tourism. This research explores the case of the Maredolce - La Favara complex (Palermo) with a qualitative methodology that included participant observation and field survey. The green space is subject to processes of care put in place for decades by a group of inhabitants who work for the enhancement and involvement of the area in the representation and governance policies of the city. The processes and dynamics related to the context under study are analyzed to highlight how heritage walks, as effective practices of proximity tourism, can contribute to sustainable urban development that enhances local in-stances of signification and affective belonging to places.

The river in the city: requalification and shared management of the water resource. – The watercourse of the Basento river, in the segment that runs through the regional capital of Basilicata, Potenza, has undertaken enhancement and redevelopment initiatives, in order to allow its reintegration into the urban fabric. The pourpose of this contribution is to outline the process that is leading to the requalification of the river area – in the context of the Basento River Park – as well as the ex Cip-Zoo, a former industrial area. The aim is to return them to the community, which is attempting to participate in decision-making processes through voluntary and spontane-ous actions. A qualitative analysis, based on questionnaires addressed to citizens, reveals that the community is searching for a space of agency, hence the demand of governance tools that can make these participatory processes more structured and effective.

Hydric resources as patterns for a community regeneration: the Gleno dam between memory and innovation in Scalve Valley. – Geography offers tools for territorial analysis and planning which, by integrating field research with geographic information technologies, propose innovative approaches to support re-generation processes. This is strategic in mountain contexts where, over time, water resources management has been at the core of a delicate co-evolutionary relationship between humans and non-humans and, sometimes, has caused catastrophic fractures induced by anthropic action, like dam collapsing. The essay presents the case study of the Gleno Dam in the Scalve Valley, province of Bergamo, where, since the collapse centenary (1923-2023), the geographers of the Imago Mundi Lab at the University of Bergamo have been carrying out research aimed at reconstructing the territorial stratification generated over time, focusing on the role of water and the disastrous results of the dam collapse on the entire valley. Many places abandoned after the disaster can today be regenerated through co-design processes using mapping systems and placing water at the centre of new symbolic meanings, cultural functions, and production practices.

Mega events and urban spaces: Paris, Olympic City 2024. – Geographical reflection has now sedimented, through theoretical reflections and empirical analysis, the assumption that the organization of major events has disruptive effects on the balance, albeit always dynamic, of urban ecosystems. Infrastructure construction and preparatory governance processes are then accelerators of transformative dynamics that implicitly or explicitly impact the spaces and communities involved. The construction of the Olympic village in the St. Denis neighborhood for the 2024 Paris event explicitly seeks to intervene on the area’s marginal territorial milieu. Investment and infrastructure constitute the line of intervention on which, naturally, critical debate has been activated. This paper, based on a qualitative methodological approach, through Document analysis, and a number of field surveys aims to identify the main critical ribs specific to the case study.

Il presente contributo prende le mosse da una specifica domanda: quale potrà essere la prospettiva di governance, in chiave storica-geografica-culturale ma anche urbanistica e legislativa, per il Patrimonio Culturale alla luce del crescente consumo di suolo nella c.d. conurbazione casertana?

Local community involvement, sustainability and tourism. – In contemporary societies a central aspect of observation is that of marginality, which characterizes various social groups. The topic thus occupies a prominent role within economic, social and geographic research and continues to be the subject of constant investigations aimed at exploring its various connotations.
The majority of the EU population has chosen to live in urban areas, and from this urbanization come effects that extend beyond city boundaries, such as on tourism.
The contribution therefore aims to offer reflection on a best practice, that of the city of Nantes, in which the participation of the local community in the benefits derived from tourism offers an example of a number of elements of project management, such as the construction of the network of local actors, governance of the territory, product creation, and marketing, which assume strategic relevance for the success of a tourism offer, from which citizens are co-participants.

Participatory public art and creative workshop: murals in Bergamo’s suburbs. – The paper examines some urban regeneration and social inclusion projects implemented through collective artworks in Bergamo’s suburbs. Here, for about a decade, murals and graphic design worshops have been adopted as agents of change and active citizen participation. In particular, Tracce Urbane and Pigmenti were conceived as opportunities to modify the urban space by producing murals based on issues such as inequality, gender equality, memory and marginalization. On the one hand, these initiatives involved international artists, in order to give aesthetic qualities to the works and make them colorful re-aesthetization operations (Trione, 2022); on the other hand, street art as a «geographic agent» (Dumont, 2019), has allowed the involvement of vulnerable groups of citizens such as immi-grants and disabled, in order to regenerate and co-construct their everyday landscape. The objective is to provide, with the help of documentation and semi-structured interviews, a critical analysis of the various approaches advocated by local stakeholders. This allows to define the dynamics of the participatory processes implemented and the effectiveness of community empowerment agency; finally, it allows to understand whether these experiences are able to generate conscious communities (Bazzini, Puttilli, 2008), bearers of a common narrative with a peripheral point of view.

Requalification of peripheries with an industrial background: the case-study of Mirafiori in Turin. – The paper intends to develop a reflection, starting from the case of the Mirafiori neighbourhood in Turin, on the role that the peripheries can adopt as a laboratory of transversal innovation in the field of urban design, policy, governance, active citizenship and overall the global themes of Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2015). The Mirafiori neighbourhood can be highlighted as an emblematic case, since it is an industrial suburb closely connected with the former FIAT (now Stellantis) industrial plant. Over the years, the neighbourhood has suffered a socio-demographic and identity crisis, and over time numerous projects have been launched to address these crises. Participation in European projects insisting on the neighbourhood allows us to be privileged observers and actors for: the re-designing and re-qualification of Mirafiori Sud through the realisation of Nature-based Solutions, useful to strengthen and increase the connection of the food system, a tool for social inclusion and territorial development, as well as to increase the envi-ronmental value of the already existing natural elements; to address activities with a Place-based Education approach, useful in the redesigning of spaces. The analysis of projects settled in Mirafiori is needed in order to assess the possibility of constructing new urban centralities starting from marginal places.

Enhancement policies of sheep tracks network and local development: a renewed challenge for Abruzzo. − Abruzzo cultural landscape has been shaped by the practice of transhumance, which supported the process of urban transformation and economically sustained the social fabric. The inclusion, in 2019, of transhumance in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage gave a chance to rethink regional initiatives aimed at defining projects for the enhancement of sheep tracks which testify the will to create new tourist opportunities and to activate broader local development projects. The “Parcovie 2030 - The Transhumance that unites” project fits into this context. The aim of this paper is to verify the progress of this project (with a critical assessment of the role played by governance), considering the potentialities of the territory, also with regard to the demographic and socio-economic capital endowment shown by the areas crossed by these paths.

Shadows of militarism on the city. An urban perspective on military geographies. – Cities represent a relevant perspective for analysing military discourses and practices. Firstly, because the urban scale continues to be the key site of conventional warfare and a space of experimentation for new forms of militarism. Secondly, because the presence and the resulting construction of military discourse determine a complex system that influences both everyday practices and the dynamics of governance. The analysis of these influences allows us to highlight points of overlap between processes of militarization and forms of urban violence (to be understood both in relation to individuals and in connection to the construction/limitation of spaces). This contribution, through an analytical dialogue between the literature on military geographies and urban studies, aims to examine the relationship between militarism at the urban scale and the geographies of violence, in cities not directly involved in war conflicts.

Landascape of Decay. Landscape of the Camorra: Characters, Perceptions and Storytelling. – For a reading of the landscapes of the Camorra, the peculiarities of a territorial nature should be analyzed: economic, urban planning, social, criminal and narrational of these particolar landscape scenarios of degradation. By practicing a critical analysis of the relationships that are established between organized crime and the landscape. In its physical forms and in those of individual and community life. The Camorra landscape is produced by a system of community relations achieved by a range of widespread illegal attitudes and behaviors, converging in actions of laceration of the civil fabric. The perception of this set of negative values is a fundamental component of the generation and perpetuation of this landscape. The individuals and communities of those territories have the perennial cogency of an "underlying" landscape present to their sensorial and cultural perception, based on disvalues distorting every action and behavior, therefore every feeling of them. The territory, its use and its governance, is strongly characterized by uses, practices, meanings and a particular storytelling. Made up of values charged with social and criminal negativity, but also fully perceived by the communities. Communities are forced to undergo this particular territorial connotation, which becomes fundamental in the emergence of this landscape of organized crime.

Cultural heritage and urban regeneration. Roma Capitale suburbs Announcement for the launch of a culture driven development. – The management and the rethinking of urban spaces, old and new, central and peripheral, in use or in assignment, is an essential and unavoidable challenge for the competitiveness of any urban systems. This implies a profound change of policy and relations between the actors and the stakeholders that act in it. In this challenge, the culture is a new, and so far underestimated, competitive advantage, able to act as a catalyst to encourage and stimulate creative and innovative processes of territorial development, starting from available local resources. In fact, in the current globalizing scenario, each territory must continually generate local revitalization processes, in order to remain economically competitive and culturally attractive. In this context, urban areas characterized by inadequate spaces and public services, in which there are abandoned structures with particular emphasis on those connoted by landscape features and historical architecture of a certain level, may represent flywheels and natural incubators with a cultural background from which starting to redefine the overall structure of any local systems. The recovery projects proposed for three areas of the northwest area of the city of Rome, falling in the suburbs Announcement recently presented by the municipality, fit in attempts to develop urban resilience proposals according to an approach of culture driven development.