Paper short abstract:

We intend to critically reflect on the concepts of community welfare and civil economy by comparing the outcomes of three ethnographies conducted in a Turin suburb and integrated in a systemic action that aims to contrast social and territorial marginality and to support active citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

Can we imagine new forms of citizenship through actions and practices that consider as protagonists social actors usually categorized in public discourse as "marginal"? Can a peripheral urban area become "central" through systemic actions that support innovation and social cohesion and activate new forms of community welfare? In this paper we intend to discuss these issues by presenting the first results of an interdisciplinary research conducted in “Barriera di Milano”, a historic northern suburb of the city of Turin. Neighbourhood with a long experience of internal and international immigration, this territory suffered in a particularly intense way the economic crisis of recent years and was therefore chosen, by voluntary associations, institutional bodies and urban committees, as the target area for the creation of a network of practices that intend to contrast poverty and to build new forms of shared citizenship and civil economy. In particular, three projects were activated on the territory, and were specifically addressed to young people at risk of early school leaving, to families in economic difficulty and to homeless adults. The ethnographies of these projects allow to check the patterns of the framework system and to point out which elements might reveal an innovative people empowerment through processes of social capacitation.