I centri minori del Casentino, come laboratorio di rigenerazione sociale, ambientale ed economica delle aree interne

The REACT research addresses internal areas with a strongly interdisciplinary approach, using the concept of cultural landscape to unite different problem dimensions: settlements, architectural heritage, cultivated landscapes, natural systems, and community practices. The focus is on Casentino’s cultural landscape, the first valley crossed by the Arno river, chosen to understand socioeconomic and environmental transformation dynamics and develop sustainable regeneration through local resource promotion and community actions exportable to other internal areas. The research presents the analysis results on Poppi (Arezzo) and the methodology to identify critical issues and potential of inhabited centres in internal areas. In an era questioning the sustainability of current development models and coexistence rules, which have proven unable to prevent and repair damage from past and present crisis (particularly ecological and pandemic crises), villages and rural territories in internal areas can become ideal for promoting innovative development models. These models emphasize the human element’s centrality in its relationship with environmental components. The smaller centres of the Casentino thus become experimental laboratories to develop new social, environmental, and economic regeneration practices replicable in other inland areas.