Rooted, Yet in Motion: Territorial Regeneration as a Participatory Heritage Practice

Abstract (English)

Heritage is often conceptualized through metaphors of “roots”, evoking stability, continuity, and a deep connection to place. However, rather than seeing rootedness as a fixed inheritance, this paper explores how it can function as a participatory practice of regeneration—one that actively reshapes community belonging. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the village of Castel del Giudice (IS), located on the border with Abruzzo, nestled in the heart of the Apennine Mountains, I examine how heritage-making unfolds through dynamic processes of land-based practices, and collective memory work. By focusing on participatory approaches to heritage governance, this paper highlights how this engaged local community revitalizes, and reimagines its territory through acts of caretaking and renewal. How do participatory practices challenge rigid notions of heritage as static preservation? In what ways do community-based practices cultivate new forms of belonging that are both rooted and adaptive? How can regenerative approaches to heritage contribute to sustainable futures beyond extractive and top-down-based models? Through this case study of collaborative territorial restoration in a depopulated, marginalized remote area, I argue that territorial regeneration is not just about preserving the local traditions, but about co-creating the future. Community members engage in practices of recollection of oral histories and traditional knowledges and skills not as acts of nostalgia, but as strategies for sustaining local livelihoods and reorienting the village towards a viable future. This case study situates territorial regeneration within broader discussions of sustainability, grassroots governance, and alternative development models. Castel del Giudice, like many Italian rural areas, faces socio-economic and cultural marginalization due to structural disinvestment and demographic decline. Rather than relying on top-down interventions, the community has embraced participatory development strategies, reworking heritage as a resource for both cultural continuity and economic renewal. Through cooperative governance, local actors engage in territorial restoration not as passive beneficiaries, but as active agents shaping their own futures.
This approach challenges rigid notions of authenticity and instead foreground the social and ecological entanglements that sustain places over time. This paper proposes the idea that rootedness is an active and negotiated process—one that fosters relationality and shared responsibility for cultural and ecological futures.