Comunità concrete e principio territoriale. Verso pratiche pattizie di cittadinanza territoriale.

This text introduces the concepts of "concrete community" and the "territorial principle", inspired initially by Adriano Olivetti, and reinterprets them within Alberto Magnaghi's "territorialist" framework. In Magnaghi’s approach, these two concepts are inextricably linked. The Concrete Community is defined as the foundational nucleus for self-sustainable local development. It emerges from the bottom up through the creation of "place consciousness," relying on interactive agreements (pacts) and the co-evolution between human settlements and the environment. The Territory is viewed as a complex "living system" and the dynamic product of long-term co-evolution between nature and society, organised through federalist networks of small and medium-sized towns. The chapter aims to explicate the role Magnaghi assigns to pact-based practices (such as territorial citizenship pacts) and to forms of socio-territorial innovation and "retro-innovation" (changes originating in local communities to influence higher levels of governance). Drawing specifically on Magnaghi’s recent work on Olivetti (2022), the author focuses on the concrete community as a device for social interaction and political construction, concluding with future research paths to further develop Magnaghi's thought.