Conference Program

When bottom-up social innovations emerging within civil society arise in response to collective needs that are not met by institutions or the market (Moralli, 2019; 2022), they can evolve into processes capable of reshaping collective imaginaries, social representations, and dominant rhetorics. In particular, when such practices become rooted in local contexts, they may contribute to the creation of spaces of sharing and cooperation that take on the characteristics of social and educational commons.

Drawing on an exploratory study of the practices and processes of social innovation promoted by young people under 35 living in Basilicata (South of Italy) and active in third sector organizations engaged in the social regeneration of the region’s inner areas, this contribution investigates how these initiatives generate spaces of collective learning, shared responsibility, and democratic participation. The analysis follows the young promoters of these initiatives through a multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995), exploring practices, processes, and narratives of social innovation both on site and online, and observing how they contribute to the construction of forms of commoning within local territories.

The choice of Basilicata is linked to the fact that it is the southern Italian region experiencing the highest demographic decline (-7.4% in 2023, Svimez 2024) and the highest percentage of inner areas (Vespasiano, 2023), which are often characterized by difficulties in accessing essential services (education, healthcare, infrastructure) and by limited employment opportunities. In this context, some youth-led initiatives promote practices of territorial regeneration that transform social and cultural spaces into environments of sharing, learning, and collective care.

Against a dominant narrative that portrays these territories as “points of escape,” the young people involved reinterpret them as “vanishing points” from which to imagine and practice new forms of cooperation. Through these practices, local spaces become contexts in which knowledge, responsibility, and participation circulate horizontally among participants, contributing to the construction of democratic imaginaries grounded in the co-production of collective solutions.

The contribution therefore proposes to interpret youth social innovation practices in inner areas as processes of commoning that generate forms of collective learning and new practices of democratic citizenship in marginalized territories.