Planning and participation in the National Strategy for Inner Areas. Some considerations about the ‘basso sangro-trigno’ area.

Participation, considered by the European Commission as one of the pillars of the good governance, is increasingly becominga ‘necessary’ practice in local development experiences as well as a growing mediator for conflicting interests.Participation assumes profoundly heterogeneous processality and different roles in the territorial planning and a specificrelevance in marginal context. The first aim of this paper is reasoning about the “spaces for participation” planned by theNational Strategy for Inner Areas. The second goal is observe the participatory processes expressed by the Basso Sangro-Trigno, the first Pilot Area of Abruzzo. Adopting qualitative methods, the paper reveals an ambiguous disequilibriumamong local planning, participation and passive territoriality.

Keywords: participation, National Strategy for Inner Areas, Basso Sangro-Trigno Area, Abruzzo, peripheral areas.