Participation and territorial identity. The case of Castel del Giudice (Molise, Italy).

In recent years, there is growing attention to neo-endogenous development approaches. In these practices, the focus is onpeople’s needs, abilities and expectations, this also implies the inclusion of an ethical dimension of the development process,to be achieved through a significant participation of the community and respect for the values expressed. A process that,according to the latest scientific debate, would be organized around the so-called “social innovation”. In this contribution,social innovation is explored in relation to the idea of development that seems to be to underline and from it, specificinterpretations of the concept of territorial identity would emerge. The conceptual framework outlined leads the observationof the case study, a small village in Molise, with the aim of verifying the applicability of a scheme of identification aboutsocial innovation and of interpreting its relationship with territorial identity. The risk of “disappearing” has promptedsignificant changes driven by the vision and commitment of a group of actors and the local community itself.

Keywords: participation, neo-endogenous development, rural village, territorial identity, Castel del Giudice.