Valorizzazione dei piccoli centri italiani e Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza: l'esperienza dei borghi intelligenti

The ecological and digital transition process, together with the experience deriving from the pandemic emergency, has triggered major transformations in rural areas and beyond. With the push towards smart working, distancing and travel restrictions, the health emergency has upset the social and working habits people who have returned to looking at rural areas and villages, not only as a destination for holidays outside the city, but also as a lifestyle choice: green job opportunities (circular economy), larger living spaces, higher quality of life. In this perspective, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the Italian Government has allocated over 1,600 billion euros for the regeneration of the rural landscape and the attractiveness of villages at risk of depopulation. In this framework, the paper intends to analyze some projects financed under the National Villages Plan of the NRRP, focusing particularly on the experience of smart villages and community cooperatives as innovative models adopting a bottom-up approach and based on the centrality of community in local development processes.