REPOPULATING LEFT-BEHIND TERRITORIES: POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND EMERGING PATHWAY

Organizers

Mauro Fontana, Politecnico di Torino
Silvia Cafora, Politecnico di Torino
Loris Servillo, Politecnico di Torino

Presenters

Lucy Natarajan, UCL
Salvador Gilabert Sanz, Universidad Politècnica de Catalunya
Astrid Safina, Sapienza University of Rome
Silvia Cafora, Politecnico di Torino
Emanuele Belotti, University of Bergamo
Sara Cremaschi, DAStU Politecnico di Milano
Alessandro Coppola, DAStU Politecnico di Milano

In recent years, a mobility trend has seen a return to territories of smaller urbanity, bucking the 2016 Global Cities Index forecast that by 2050 two-thirds of the world's population will live in large urban areas. This phenomenon, referred to as the ‘return to the small and medium’ (Lang, 2021), counteracts the metro-philia (Morgan, 2014) and suggests new development trajectories for territories characterised by depopulation, demographic ageing, abandonment, decay of the built heritage and rarefaction of essential services.

Several national policies (e.g. Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne in Italy, Rural Agenda in France, Estrategia frente al Retro Demografico in Spain) work to improve accessibility to services and promote local development. At the same time, recent studies analyse new internal migration trends. Flows today follow different trajectories: many choose to stay or return to their territories of origin, experimenting with new living models, and people with a migratory background settle in small towns at risk of depopulation. 

However, emerging issues are still little debated in the scientific arena. The difficulty of access to real estate in non-urban territories is one of them. Here, the housing stock is often characterised by abandoned houses, fragmented properties or those destined for the short tourist rental market. This heritage struggles to enter the real estate market circuit despite its regenerative potential. A debate is therefore needed to define policies that favour access to housing, together with the creation of new job trajectories, local development and access to services and culture, while promoting the repopulation and regeneration of these territories. 

This special session is intended to position itself within the international debate on the neo-population of left-behind territories. It lacks a clear scientific position and literature for analysis and direction.

Contributions may cover the following – but not exhaustive – topics:

• Policies and practices for repopulation;
• Housing stock for collaborative and affordable living in non-urban contexts (critical issues, reactivation strategies, etc.);
• Local development between models and types of local and allochthonous economies/workplaces (returnees, new inhabitants, etc.);
• Empowerment of communities (economy, work, services and culture).

Key words: Left-behind territories; Habitability; Repopulation