Bridging the gap: Implementing inner areas governance in education. A case study of the territorial educational pact of Casentino

In 2021, UNESCO s International Commission on the Futures of Education stressed the need to foster participatory processes in order to reshape the educational landscape, highlighting the importance of collaborative governance as a prerogative of the new social contract . Indeed, education as a common good requires a transformation that goes beyond traditional approaches and actively involves all stakeholders. This paper explores how the creation and implementation of public-private alliances at local level can be an exemplary response to this vision, providing a model that promotes sustainable development through community engagement in the collaborative governance of the educational and cultural sector. In this sense, the Casentino Territorial Educational Pact, signed in May 2024, constitutes an innovative experiment that seeks to strengthen the educational offer of Italy s Inner Areas, focusing on the valorisation of intangible cultural heritage as an educational tool and an element of local development. Collaboration between the area s municipalities, educational institutions, third sector organisations and cultural institutions has enabled the development of a unique educational ecosystem that responds directly to the needs of the area and uses local knowledge as a central element to promote a territorial system for lifelong and lifewide learning.