Innovative practices for sustainable development of resistant communities

Italian inner areas, characterised by a progressive depopulation and a reduction of services, present significant challenges for territorial development. The need for innovative approaches that integrate regeneration, art, care, creativity, and the management of cultural commons becomes therefore indispensable (Ostrom, 1990; Matarasso, 1997; Cerreta et al., 2021; The Care Collective, 2021). This work aims to explore how the intersection of these elements can promote resistant communities through the hybridization practices between academic knowledge and community knowledge that animate the experiences of territorial resistances (Allocca et al. 2021). It delves into the creation of hybrid cultural ecosystems capable of fostering regeneration on multiple scales (Cirillo & De Tullio, 2021; Coppola 2023). The reference context is that of "inner areas," territorial spaces less accessible, where the marginalisation is accentuated (Carrosio & Osti, 2017), but where also lie unexplored potentials for a regeneration that values local identities and promotes new models of sustainable development. Inner Areas has become a laboratory for social innovation on the margins. The artists, cultural innovators, and their respective networks have rebalanced the territorial narrative by replacing what had been a local absence of an intentional and willing community, thereby transforming abandoned buildings and public spaces through innovative cultural visions. Tenneggi has argued that a cultural vision and the creation of a place’s own narrative are necessary so the re-signification of the places themselves arises socially and has a pedagogical and intimately educational function (Tenneggi, 2018). The research project "Calabria Creative Living Lab" (CALL), supported by the POR CALABRIA 2014/2020 under action FESR 1.3.2, presents an innovative examination of how an integrated approach, intertwining technological innovation with community participation, can significantly enhance cultural heritage (Sacco, 2011)