IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v34y2019i7p632-656.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soft power in recycling spaces: Exploring spatial impacts of regeneration and youth entrepreneurship in Southern Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Federica Scaffidi

Abstract

Throughout the last decades, more and more attention in academics and practice has been given to ‘social’ topics such as community involvement, active citizenship, commoning processes. Considering this trend, it is possible to notice an abuse of these terms, contributing to the ‘social washing’ and feeding the risk of instrumentalisation. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art and comparing two cases, the paper aims to evaluate the outcomes of neglected sites recycling with socially innovative initiatives. At the centre of the debate are social enterprises, non-profit entities whose ambition is to create social benefits and new economic solutions for a better use of local resources over time. Considering this purpose, the research investigated the European scenario of Southern Italy, characterised by demographic transition and youth migration. The research adopted qualitative, quantitative and comparative methods. The two cases analysed and compared are Periferica of Mazara del Vallo and ExFadda of San Vito dei Normanni. Both are the result of local resources reactivation and youth entrepreneurship policies. These creative centres are managed by social enterprises. Their actions and activities affect the places producing social, economic, cultural and spatial impacts. However, behind these initiatives lies the soft power, a power able to shape people perceptions through culture. The research illustrates the process outcomes and evaluates its positive and negative impacts to the site and its surroundings. In conclusion, the research is conceived as a contribution to the body of knowledge and the basis for future researches and practical models for the socially innovative recycling of disused resources in urban–rural context.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Scaffidi, 2019. "Soft power in recycling spaces: Exploring spatial impacts of regeneration and youth entrepreneurship in Southern Italy," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(7), pages 632-656, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:34:y:2019:i:7:p:632-656
    DOI: 10.1177/0269094219891647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094219891647
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0269094219891647?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dedeurwaerdere, Tom & Melindi-Ghidi, Paolo & Broggiato, Arianna, 2016. "Global scientific research commons under the Nagoya Protocol: Towards a collaborative economy model for the sharing of basic research assets," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(P1), pages 1-10.
    2. Luca Tricarico, 2014. "Imprese di Comunit nelle Politiche di Rigenerazione Urbana: Definire ed Inquadrare il Contesto Italiano," Euricse Working Papers 1468, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Federica Scaffidi, 2022. "Regional Implications of the Circular Economy and Food Greentech Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerzaín Avilés-Polanco & David J. Jefferson & Marco Antonio Almendarez-Hernández & Luis Felipe Beltrán-Morales, 2019. "Factors That Explain the Utilization of the Nagoya Protocol Framework for Access and Benefit Sharing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Meisam Ranjbari & Gustavo Morales-Alonso & Ruth Carrasco-Gallego, 2018. "Conceptualizing the Sharing Economy through Presenting a Comprehensive Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Carolina dos S Ribeiro & Martine Y van Roode & George B Haringhuizen & Marion P Koopmans & Eric Claassen & Linda H M van de Burgwal, 2018. "How ownership rights over microorganisms affect infectious disease control and innovation: A root-cause analysis of barriers to data sharing as experienced by key stakeholders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Michele Bianchi, 2019. "Renewing the City through Public Participation and Cultural Activities. The Case Study of Gillet Square, a Community-Led Urban Regeneration Project," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21.
    5. Daniel Schlagwein & Detlef Schoder & Kai Spindeldreher, 2020. "Consolidated, systemic conceptualization, and definition of the “sharing economy”," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(7), pages 817-838, July.
    6. Gurdial Singh Nijar & Sélim Louafi & Eric W. Welch, 2017. "The implementation of the Nagoya ABS Protocol for the research sector: experience and challenges," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 607-621, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:34:y:2019:i:7:p:632-656. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.