IN-PERSON London. Section A

Abstract

The current socio-environmental crisis has widened the gap between the urban centre and the peri-urban areas, leading to a deterioration in the quality of life of the communities living there. At the same time, there is a growing divide between urban and rural areas, and between farmers and consumers, with significant social, economic and environmental consequences. Using a sociological analytical approach, the present research aims to investigate the relationship between peri-urban agricultural communities and the city through tourism activity, exploring how the peri-urban can be implemented as a hinge between urban and rural. To achieve this, a socio-territorial analysis was conducted on a case study situated in the northern outskirts of Naples. The analysis includes the examination of secondary data and its geographic representation using GIS. The main findings show the potential and multiple opportunities of this area in terms of production and landscape, highlighting the significant presence of peri-urban farms and the important cultural and natural heritage of this area. However, numerous criticalities, characterized by administrative neglect, heterogeneity and fragility at both socio-economic and environmental levels, reveal the complexity of the ecosystem. Going beyond the usual interpretative models of urban planning and the city-country dichotomy, this research defines the peri-urban area as a landscape requiring consideration, and introduces the study of the tourism dimension in peri-urban agricultural contexts as a lever for sustainable development and the rapprochement of the rural world with the urban reality.