Reversing cultural marginality in inner peripheries: the key role of community mapping

Abstract

The marginality of inner peripheries – related to the chronic depopulation and abandonment - fosters the sense of subalternity of communities living in these areas. Nevertheless, inner peripheries’ heritage still has an important transformative potential, acting both as a resource and as a catalyst for change and community empowerment. According to the Faro Convention, heritage goes beyond physical artefacts to encompass values, practices and meanings that define collective identities and can serve here as a powerful counter-narrative. This paper explores potential and limitations of community mapping in strengthening relations between heritage and community and discusses the first outcomes of a participatory process developed in a small town of the Tammaro-Titerno area (South Italy). The process highlights the deep historical stratification and the interplay between human practices and physical environment that contributed to shape the territorial heritage.