Risultati per " network"

Youth social infrastructures: dynamics and critical issues in two marginalised neighbourhoods of Palermo. – This article examines Youth Social Infrastructures (YSIs) in two marginalised neighbourhoods of Palermo – San Filippo Neri (ZEN) and Uditore-Passo di Rigano – exploring how places and organisations enable or constrain young people’s participation and sociality in contexts marked by public disinvestment and territorial stigmatisation. Drawing on ethnographic research, the study investigates formal spaces managed by third sector organisations and informal spaces of spontaneous aggregation. The analysis identifies key capacities of YSIs – including continuity, safe spaces, networking, and advocacy – alongside critical limitations: funding precarity, numerical inadequacy, difficulties in institutional co-design, limited youth self-determination, and deficit-based narratives that risk reinforcing stigmatisation. By examining YSIs in context and in contest, the article highlights the tension between grassroots vitality and structural fragility in southern European marginalised contexts.
Cartographies of the Repressed: The Crisis of Social Reproduction in the Processes of Urban Extractivism. – According to Jameson, erasure is a key mechanism by which dominant ideology shapes collective consciousness in capitalism, sidelining social contradictions via symbolically charged narratives (Jameson 1981). Based on a cartographic workshop with Rione Sanità Educational Network in Naples, Italy, this article deconstructs the hegemonic urban regeneration narrative by uncovering the hidden wounds of the district, which have been removed from the official discourse on urban regeneration. In particular, the empirical findings of the study illuminate three dimensions of the repressed: the labour-intensive burden of educational work upon which the weight of the crisis of social reproduction falls; the thinning of public spaces for children and adolescents; the loss of essential social infrastructures for the district and its habitability.
Geographies of the sacred: the sanctuary of the SS. Trinità of Vallepietra between tradi-tion, territorial identity, and new practices. – The Sanctuary of the Santissima Trinità of Vallepietra represents an emblematic place where faith, tradition, and new social and territorial practices converge. This study examines how this sacred space continues to hold strong spiritual significance while also embracing new dynamics related to slow and sustainable travel. Younger generations are rediscovering pilgrimage through paths that combine spirituality with a search for territorial authenticity, maintaining a strong connection with tradition. The “companies” of pilgrims, symbolically united by banners and the practice of gatherings, perpetuate an identity bond with the territory, reinterpreting their belonging through a lens of re-territorialization. In this context, events related to pilgrimages and gatherings of banners are seen as practices of reclaiming the territory, strengthening the bond with the local community, and reaffirming the collective meaning of the sacred site. The approach of the Holy Year 2025 and the extraordinary Jubilee of 2033 has renewed attention to these places, intensifying the process of re-territorialization and reinforcing the bond between spirituality and territory. This study shows that, although influenced by socio-cultural changes, sanctuaries remain focal points of collective identity and territorial relationships, able to evolve without losing their original religious significance.
Cultural innovation, museum network, territorial system: the role of management software
Turismo di prossimità ed economia sociale e solidale: esperienze spagnole. – Il turismo di prossimità ha guadagnato terreno dall’inizio della pandemia di Covid-19. Tuttavia, questa espressione era già stata sviluppata in precedenza, come un’esperienza di viaggio e di svago più ecologica e significativa in un contesto di compressione dello spazio-tempo e di emergenza climatica. Inoltre, la prossimità è molto apprezzata nell’economia sociale e solidale (ESS), sebbene il turismo debba ancora essere generalizzato secondo i principi dell’ESS. Questo articolo analizza le iniziative sviluppate e pro-mosse all’interno di due reti turistiche dell’ESS in Spagna, El Camino ESS e La Xarxa. L’obiettivo è di far riflettere sul turismo di prossimità come strumento per lo sviluppo locale nella transizione socio-ecologica.
Home tourism for a destination proposal: the Prenestini Mountains. – The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a significant shift in tourism patterns, particularly favoring domestic and proximity-based travel. This study investigates the impact of these changes on the Prenestini Mountains, a mountainous area near Rome. By analyzing data on tourism infrastructure, local initiatives, and community engagement, it is explored how the region has adapted to the new tourism landscape. Findings reveal that while the pandemic initially disrupted the tourism industry, it also presented opportunities for local development. The Prenestini Mountains has seen an increase in near-home tourism, particularly among hikers. The study highlights the importance of local products, cultural heritage, and sustainable tourism practices in attracting visitors. Furthermore, it is discussed the role of local communities, institutions, and networks in shaping the region’s tourism future. By leveraging its natural beauty, agricultural heritage, and proximity to Rome, the Prenestini Mountains has the potential to become a destination for sustainable and experiential tourism.
Territorial and geopolitical dynamics of the international professional tennis tour. – Major events, and in particular sports events, play an important role in contemporary society, mobilising huge amounts of resources and helping to delineate political, social and territorial phenomena of great interest. In this sense, just think of how many actors are involved in the organisation and management of competitions that, although they often take place in local contexts, are part of broader and more complex relational networks that often reach the international level. This contribution focuses on the territorial and geopolitical dynamics that characterise the major events of the international professional tennis tour. In particular, an attempt will be made to identify the logics underlying the geographical distribution of the different locations in an attempt to understand whether the choices depend on geopolitical reasons or are instead essentially linked to territorial characteristics or whether they depend on a mix of motivations. In addition, we aim to investigate whether and with what effects climate variations has already influenced or may influence the organisation of events on the international professional tennis tour in the future.
Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Water Resources Management. Case Study: Gorgovivo, Ancona. – The urgent need to address challenges related to the sustainable management of water resources has prompted the scientific and technological community to explore innovative solutions that can make a significant contribution to achieving the goals and sustainability strategies of the UN’s 2030 Agenda. In this context, Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerges as a powerful ally, offering advanced tools for the collection, analysis, and management of water data efficiently and effectively. Using machine learning algorithms and neural networks, AI enables accurate prediction of water demand, facilitating optimal planning and allocation of resources. Moreover, the integration of smart sensors and monitoring systems allows real-time control of water resources, improving the response capacity to environmental variations and emergencies.
The purpose of the research is to examine how AI can optimize water treatment and distribution processes, reducing waste and enhancing the energy efficiency of water facilities; the use of predictive models based on historical data and environmental variables allows for proactive management of resources, thus contributing to their conservation and long-term sustainability. In this perspective, an AI-based system will be adopted to predict the groundwater levels of the Gorgovivo spring (AN), using historical data from the spring itself, the level of the Esino river, and rainfall stations. The proposed AI model is based on the Prophet predictive algorithm, specifically designed to manage time series forecasting applications; as adapted by us, the predictive model was evaluated using the mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), and correlation criteria.
Relational goods, imbalances, and the society-environment relationship. – The interactions between the economy, the environment, and territorial systems form a complex network that influences the structure and development of regions. The reflection is carried out both in relation to imbalances and in the reinterpretation of ecological and socio-spatial relations, collaborative processes, and the organisation and reorganisation of space as relational goods. The issue of territorial imbalances is linked to the question of conflicts within political ecology. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to present a theoretical reflection that aims to deepen the relationship between the economy, the environment, and territorial systems, focusing specifically on relational goods in the context of two spatiotemporal dimensions and referring to a territorial system as an alternative approach. The complexity of the territorial system, therefore, suggests taking into account the communicative and relational interdependencies between local actors, that influence economic growth and sustainable development. Finally, the responsible use of territorial resources requires public policies that reduce spatial inequalities, promote the active participation of territorial actors and the sustainable management of resources as components of local development.
The rediscovery of transhumance routes in the Matese area of Campania. Paths and economic chains. – The Matese mountain complex is part of the southern Apennines chain and currently divides the Campania and Molise regions. Inhabited since the pre-Roman age by Samnite people, throughout history it has represented a place of transit between the Campania plain and the Adriatic side. With the establishment and regulation of the Regi Trat-turi in the Aragonese era, part of the ancient walkways that crossed the Matese were used by the shepherds of the Campania side to connect with the main Pescasseroli-Candela sheep track that surrounds the mountain complex in the Molise part. Until the 18th century, sheep breeding and the production of woolen cloths represented among the most important items for the economy of the territories located on the Campania side of Matese. Centers such as Piedimonte d'Alife (today Piedimonte Matese), Cerreto Sannita, Cusano and Morcone based their economic well-being on these activities for a long time, so much so that they are considered among the most active centers of the ancient Kingdom. The purpose of this study is the rediscovery of this network of paths and of the ancient connected economic chains as a fundamental prerequisite for a development proposal for the area, which is currently experiencing a period of profound economic stagnation with consequent depopulation. The methodology used refers to the analysis of historical documentary and cartographic sources and the GIS will be used for the identification and tracing of these paths.
Disseminating welcoming places in difficult urban contexts to “come out of the margins”. – As international literature highlights, the quality and density of the relationships network that characterizes the spaces of everyday life in urban peripheries and margins significantly affects the vulnerability of individuals. This paper aims to reflect on some examples of practices for constructing spaces and networks of relations implemented in Milan with the purpose of placing children and teenagers at the center of urban life to make an “educating community” out of the neighborhoods and the whole city, one that is able to propose more inclusive models of citizenship. Indeed, the wide range of Milan’s cultural and voluntary associations capable of solidarity and dialogue also with the “street cultures” has made it possible to create a widespread laboratory of experimentation sensitive to the forms and practices of living concerning the youngest citizens.
Criminogenic Dynamics of Actors and Stakes in Transhumance Territories. – Using the Abruzzo mountains as a point of departure, the contribution illustrates the dynamics of actors currently shaping transhumance territories, but which have nothing to do with the age-old practice of animal herding; instead, they threaten it. These are criminogenic dynamics supported by cross-regional networks of actors who aim to gain control of mountain pastures by dividing up the national territory. By utilizing the mechanisms of "titles" provided by the Common Agricultural Policy for the receipt of direct aid for farmers, European contributions amounting to millions of euros are obtained. The hypothesis that the research results, related to one of these networks in particular, seem to support is that there is substantial continuity with organized crime interested in territorial control.
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.
The places of the comedy along the via Casilina. – This contribution begins with a re-reading and re-interpretation of the Divina Commedia from a geographical perspective. Operation useful for capturing symbols and signs that still manifest themselves today in those places mentioned, in the Commedy. These places, located along the via Casilina, if put into a system, outline a potential itinerary dedicated to the figure of Dante Alighieri, representing a piece of the mosaic of routes that structure the network of routes in the territory of the Lazio sub-apennines (via Francigena in southern Italy, way of st. Thomas, food and wine itineraries of the cesanese lands, path of the parks, etc.).
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.

“The loom and the plot. Networks of community and territorial action in Sardinia” by Carlo Perelli

Smart Cities and Communities, Borghi and Inner Areas, Network Innovation

Conflicts over the land-use of the Gaeta coastal zone (southern Lazio, Italy). – The aim of this contribution is to highlight the conflicts that have arisen over the centuries on Gaeta coastal zone in southern Lazio. The conformation of the Gulf, in which it faces, has favoured its vocation of mooring and therefore of maritime activities since ancient times. However, its defence capacity soon made it impregnable to attack by sea, making it a military fortress, so they interrupted its reputation as a commercial port and refuge for vessel. Fortunately, just outside the fortress, a fishing activity and a shipbuilding industry continued to be. These activities relaunched Gaeta until after the Second World War, and still survive today waiting for a new revival. The destruction of the historic walls also rehabilitated that part of the city that was enclosed there, but in it there are also the NATO fleet support and the military vessels controlling and safeguarding the coast of the entire gulf. Meanwhile, in the last decades, Gaeta has regained the role that had belonged since Roman times to a holiday resort. In the summer months, a large number of tourists pour out, especially on the different beaches that are developed on the coast just off the gulf. Over time, bathing, refreshment and accommodation services have been provided to them, threatening valuable coastal habitats, protected by both the Region and the 2000 Nature Network. This relationship between nature and man can be balanced only if the conditions of co-existence are known and respected. Similarly, it can be said for the maritime activities that develop in the Gulf of Gaeta.

Urban solidarity networks as antidote for global epidemics. – The Covid-19 emergency leads us to reflect upon the issues related to the unpredicta-bility and exceptionality of the phenomenon, introducing new reforms that are in stark contrast with the practices of local contexts. In this sce-nario the city can become the place where the “metabolization” of crisis phenomena takes place through widespread forms of adaptation. The study aims to analyze the practices that are being experimented in this period in order to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. We speak of tactics aimed at building networks of urban solidarity, guaranteeing subsistence services to citizens and promoting practices of mutualism and collaboration aimed at codifying new forms of social capital. Through solidarity networks examples, the research highlights how forms of active territoriality can contribute to the resilience of the urban system in times of crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic within an inner area of Campania: peripherality, density and virus diffusion in the province of Avellino. – In Italy the Covid-19 emergency hit some of the territories crossed by the thickest commercial networks and the intense flows of human mobility
The paper aims to reason on the factors of territorial vulnerability that may have facilitated the spread of the virus, trying to formulate a first hypothesis about the low density settlement structure has protected the more peripheral communities of the inner areas. Starting from the epidemiological data in an inner province of Campania - that of Avellino - the analysis will try to give a first possible framework of the relationship between the degree of peripherality from the service poles, population density and virus diffusion.

The Italian agri-food industry between global and local: food habits before and during the pandemic virus Covid-19. – The pandemic generated by the virus known as Covid-19 is an expression of an unbalanced relationship between man and environment on which geography is called to investigate and also to redefine the spaces of intervention. It will be useful to propose the adoption of a trasncalar point of view that, if in one way widens the horizon to the entire globe in a contagion and in a need for collaboration that do not recognize nor can allow us to raise limits, on the other hand, it becomes a metaphor and a warning to create a new ecology and new social political relations to weave as much at a global level as at a local and personal level.
From the forced isolation – due to the rules of social distancing adopted in many European and non – European states – paradoxically emerged a glocal dialectic to interpret. As can be seen from observing what is happening in the Italian agri-food sector, on one hand we are forced to open our economic spaces recognizing the indispensable contribution of immigrant labour for the cultivation and harvest in the fields. On the other hand we are led to close the horizon of our primary needs without being able to address the question to our trusted provider and/or topographically closer even through the network that puts us in contact with the entire rural world. The authors, also thanks to the results of the direct survey, conducted on the purchases and the alimentary habits of the families during the pandemic, underline the opportunities of growth and valorisation of the Italian agricultural and food sector.

Global Event and Local Responses: The Case of the Flu Pandemic 1918-1919. – The experience of the flu pandemic in the year 1918 is considered an important event for understanding the First World War. The flu showed the interconnection due to political-military, commercial, information and news that allowed the virus to be physically transported to every continent and from there to find the possibility of spreading in every nation. Beyond the medical- health characteristics and the consequences derived from its seriousness, this episode shows the ability reached since the early years of the twentieth century to think of itself as an interconnected network that was used by the disease to advance rapidly and pro-voke its harmful consequences.

Migrations: between imaginaries and transnational dynamics. Research ideas from Guinea Bissau – The article analyzes two aspects of the migration process. On the one hand, the role played by migratory imagination in the definition of emigration choices and strategies and, on the other hand, through the case study of Guinea Bissau, the role played by family, association and village networks in establishing transnational relations of mutual collabo-ration between the host country and the country of departure.

The Invisibles of the Cities. Urban Marginality beyond the Ghettos. – Urban marginality can assume many spatial distributions. Besides the common spatial concentration of marginality – such as ghettos, slums etc. – it is possible to identify many situations of widespread marginality. In these situations, people appear, and sometimes are considered, invisible for the society. By, living this widespread marginality, people reduce their possibilities to be included in social relathionships and network and, are rarely involved in any marginality reduction process. Laying on this framework the paper aims to suggest a conceptual approach to marginality, analyzing how the urban transformations impact on marginalization processes, and the relative spatial and social distribution of marginality.

Regional development policies and spatial planning in Campania. Some reflections. – The article reconstructs just under half a century of studies, proposals and programs of the so-called policy of rebalancing, which is a set of policy decisions and actions, including successes and failures often, which marked the public intervention for development of the Campania‟s region in the establishment of the first regional government in 1971 until today. The first part is devoted to a comparison between the vision that the various planning documents give of regional planning regional and geographical reading of these same processes in their territorial dimension, proposing also part of the literature on the geography of urban development of the southern regions and, in particular, of Campania. The second part tries to give indications on the nature and causes of the regional gap and on which roads can be traveled to attempt, if not overcome, at least a reduction in the logic of policy of re-balancing.

Land use changes, human activities (deforestation, agriculture, urban sprawl, ecc.) and abnormal weather events are the common reasons of hydrological problems like floods or landslides. Neglecting the terraced landscape, for example, reduced several times the drainage capacity of the water network surface, increasing the hydrological risks. In this paper we study terraced agricultural system of two villages (Prosecco and Contovello) near Trieste. First at all, we gave a detailed description of this rural landscape. Then, we applied a GIS analysis in order to evaluate main changes in the last forty years, overlaying not homogeneous cartography sources (aerial IGM photos of the 1974 and current ortophotos). So, we identified neglecting processes and reforestation dynamics of this terraced landscape. In a restyling perspective, we identified main local tourist attractions. Finally, we hypothesized a pathway aimed at sustainable tourism.

The “Via degli Abruzzi”. a key route to local development. – The renewed attention paid by Institutions, public authorities and scholars to main historical routes as well as their more serious consideration of rural areas’ development suggest the author to focus his interest on the ancient route of the “Via degli Abruzzi”, which played a crucial role for several centuries for religious, cultural and most importantly commercial purposes, connecting Central and Northern Italy to Southern Italy. This paper aims not only to discover again such a history, but also to let re-emerge nowadays a network of potential relationships and a renewed interest in the areas covered by this communication route, by stimulating new cultural tourism flows which could travel through this route again, and even envisaging a possible institutionalisation of its itinerary, for a more varied and efficient use of its environmental and cultural resources.

La Via degli Abruzzi: old routes to new territories. – The contribution aims to consider the Via degli Abruzzi, if supported, as a picture and as an input for the assertion of original territoriality from the extraordinary values that has accumulated and articulated over time, will work as a specific brand of network. A project of renewed fruition of the Via of Abbruzzi, to promote attractiveness of the region, through magnifying glass bet on the  territory of Aquila as a critic subject that  still living events of deterritorialization far from being resolved, also the bearer of the instances of some territories in difficulty, not only local or regional.