Derelict places as “alternative” territories of the city

In her paper “Derelict places as alternative territories of the city” Silvia Serreli discusses some alternative territories of the city not directly linkable with the dense metropolis. The experiences illustrated by means of the concepts of peripherality and proximity offer interesting departure points for in-depth study of the urban perspectives for non core-areas in particular. The crisis processes involving derelict sites are not connected with their being “small” realities, but with being “isolated” places, far from the “sources of knowledge creation and transfer”. Situations in peripheral areas are also investigated, by means of the concept of re-urbanity, in which new ways of inhabiting are found which shape new spatialities. These are places where the great tension between the different urban populations, be it the long-standing residents or the neo-rural in-migrant populations, has revealed new socio-spatial dynamics which highlight significant emerging practices of the city. The approach towards new scenarios of territoriality is highlighted by the author through certain requisites of the project: the environment is the strategic nucleus of space organisation perspectives and growth of economies; the environmental structure guides and directs localisation and organisation of settlement systems and activities; local societies need urban motivation and environmental awareness. In particular, attention is drawn to how urban motivation may be produced in the project through the use of narratives which give voice to territorial subjectivity and put the social actors in a position to express their values and expectations. The narrative approach offers itself as one of the modalities of selfrepresentation of a local society, as it constitutes the exploration of representations of trajectories that favour recognition of the plural dimensions of a territory.