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FrancoAngeli Journals

Articles

No. 2 (2024)

Pedagogical reflections on the city as a place of relationships: From Spaces of crisis to spaces of welcome

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/erpoa2-2024oa18719
Submitted
ottobre 24, 2024
Published
2025-01-23

Abstract

The increasing complexity of living in urban contexts, often characterised by fragmented fabrics and sprawling suburbs, highlights the urgency of promoting lifelong educational and formative processes that can stimulate the evolution of sustainable cities and communities, as suggested by the “learning city” model (Longworth, 2006) adopted by UNESCO in addressing the goals set by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (cf. Boffo, Biagioli & Togni, 2023).

In this perspective, the proposed contribution presents a research path that investigates the city as a place of relationships and democratic participation. The assumption is that educational and formative processes, through participation, relationships, and bottom-up regeneration, can encourage the reappropriation of public spaces by the involved subjects, towards a transformation of urban areas from spaces of crisis to places of relationship (cf. Amadini, 2017; Lazzarini, 2016; Lombardi, 2020). The aim of the conducted empirical research is to answer the question of whether such educational and formative processes, oriented by/towards/for bottom-up urban regeneration, can strengthen the sense of community belonging, empowerment, and the culture of quality continuous learning among the individuals, groups, and communities involved.

The research involved the territory of Florence, particularly schools and social cooperatives in city Districts 4 and 5, focusing on neighbourhood contexts as places for the valorisation of the margins.

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