“Wanna Be Provoked”: Inner Peripheries Generators of Social Innovation in the Italian Apennine

Ezio Micelli, Elena Ostanel and Luca Lazzarini ()
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Ezio Micelli: Dipartimento di Culture del Progetto, University IUAV of Venice, 30135 Venice, Italy
Elena Ostanel: Dipartimento di Culture del Progetto, University IUAV of Venice, 30135 Venice, Italy
Luca Lazzarini: Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: The article examines the territorial conditions, actors, and processes that facilitate or hinder the emergence of social innovation in the inner peripheries. It investigates three social innovation initiatives taking place in the Italian Apennine through a discourse analysis of policy documents and a number of semi-structured interviews of project promoters and local actors. The research findings show that social innovation emerges as an act of territorial provocation practiced by a coalition of actors that weave strong ties with the local community. Provocation takes the form of an adaptive response of the local community to the dynamics of territorial marginalization, a reaction to tackle what we called the “wanna be” feeling, namely, a sense of constriction and frustration found in local inhabitants and linked to conditions of physical and social isolation, inertia, and a lack of future perspectives. This reaction has allowed them to shape new socio-institutional networks and structures that have catalyzed local communities’ capacity to mobilize particular resources or specific assets existing in places, improving their living conditions.

Keywords: inner peripheries; social innovation; rural development; cultural production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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