Derelict places as “alternative” territories of the city

In her paper “Derelict places as alternative territories of the city” Silvia
Serreli discusses some alternative territories of the city not directly
linkable with the dense metropolis. The experiences illustrated by means
of the concepts of peripherality and proximity offer interesting departure
points for in-depth study of the urban perspectives for non core-areas in
particular.
The crisis processes involving derelict sites are not connected with their
being “small” realities, but with being “isolated” places, far from the
“sources of knowledge creation and transfer”. Situations in peripheral areas
are also investigated, by means of the concept of re-urbanity, in which
new ways of inhabiting are found which shape new spatialities. These are
places where the great tension between the different urban populations, be
it the long-standing residents or the neo-rural in-migrant populations, has revealed new socio-spatial dynamics which highlight significant emerging
practices of the city.
The approach towards new scenarios of territoriality is highlighted by
the author through certain requisites of the project: the environment is the
strategic nucleus of space organisation perspectives and growth of
economies; the environmental structure guides and directs localisation and
organisation of settlement systems and activities; local societies need
urban motivation and environmental awareness. In particular, attention is
drawn to how urban motivation may be produced in the project through the
use of narratives which give voice to territorial subjectivity and put the
social actors in a position to express their values and expectations. The
narrative approach offers itself as one of the modalities of selfrepresentation
of a local society, as it constitutes the exploration of
representations of trajectories that favour recognition of the plural
dimensions of a territory.