Remote, inner, left behind? The actors, social infrastructures and multivelevel governance of remote habitability. – This paper focuses on the assemblage of material and immaterial infrastructures, actors and multilevel policies that enhance (or impair) what we define as “remote habitability” in left-behind, remote areas. Applying the ethnographic sensitivity urged by Tomaney et al. (2024) for understanding in-depth the “making, unmaking and remaking” of contested social infrastructures in left-behind places, we present theoretical reflections and empirical evidence that draw upon a multisite fieldwork in the municipalities that compose the “Gran Sasso-Valle Subequana” subgroup within the Italian “National Strategy for Inner Areas” national policy framework (SNAI). The archival research, semi-structured inter-views and empirical observations that engaged institutional and non-institutional actors let emerge patterns of action, discourse and perception of social infrastructures and resources that are necessary for grappling with the identification and conceptualization of “remote habitability”.

Landscape as vocation: an exploration of the development strategies of some Italian inner areas. – Going beyond a limiting approach of the protection of landscape as constraining, this might be interpreted as an asset for development. Building on this background, this contribution, analyzing the local development strategies produced by some of the project areas included in the Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas, investigates to what extent landscape is interpreted as a driver for development, or as vocation, in places where its preservation and protection are a matter of paramount importance.