Re-Inhabiting Inner Areas Triggering New Regeneration Trajectories: The Case Study of Sicani in Sicily

Barbara Lino,Annalisa Contato,Giovanni Frazzica,Mauro Ferrante,Francesca Sabatini,Luciana Macaluso

doi:10.3390/su14020976

Abstract

The Italian debate on the so-called ‘inner areas’ has received a much-needed boost, following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further highlighted the differences between metropolitan and inner areas. While the progressive depopulation of inner areas is a worrying phenomenon, the limits of incessant urbanisation and the concentration of settlement and infrastructure policies in large conurbations have become evident. Departing from the framework of the B4R-Branding4Resilience research project of national interest and, by continuing in the furrow initiated by the SNAI, but also surpassing it, the aim of the University of Palermo’s research is to define the requirement for a more inclusive settlement model in the Sicani area in Sicily (Italy) to re-balance existing asymmetries by recharging peripheral areas with new centrality. The aims of the research are to demonstrate that inner areas could be an engine for innovation, thereby outlining a roadmap through which to encourage the resilience of new sustainable lifestyles. These aims would be achieved by working on new perspectives and projects, which are capable of radically modifying production, consumption, and tourism dynamics and work/life models, and which are gleaned from a study regarding the Sicani area in Sicily. The paper discusses case study quantitative and qualitative analyses and first results.

Highlights

Inner areas could be an engine for innovation, encouraging resilience for new sustainable lifestyles and working on new perspectives and projects, which are capable of radically modifying production, consumption, tourism dynamics, and work/life models
In line with the B4R research methodological framework, in this paper we critically describe some of the results of the Exploration phase in the Sicani Focus Area (FA) conducted by the Research Unit of Palermo
The mapping process aimed to highlighting both the criticalities of the Focus Area, and its potentialities from the point of view of existing resources and innovative bottomup processes that are being implemented, as well as its ability to network through the activation of different territorial development policies

Summary

Introduction

According to the ESPON’s PROFECY project results [5] inner peripheries are a complex, multidimensional and a hybrid phenomenon, which is extremely flexible in terms of its context and scale. These areas can be enclaves of low economic potential, or experience poor access to services of general interest or a lack of relational proximity. These primary processes act as a driver, but a range of secondary marginalisation processes exacerbate the situation. Peripherality in this understanding is not a purely geographic concept, but rather refers to the effects of socio-economic processes that cause disconnection with neighbouring territories and networks in a relational way

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Conclusion