Fiume e città. Metodologie partecipative per trasformazioni sociali e culturali di un territorio [River and Town. Participatory Methodologies for Social and Cultural Transformation of a Territory]

Revolutions and innovations are disruptive, but also may have social and cultural repercussions over a medium-long period of time. Silent mini-revolutions – that like acupuncture, produce benefits and trigger virtuous dynamics – are necessary in order to actually touch and observe the conceived innovation. Such benefits may apparently not produce any kind of transformation; however, if they are put into the system, then we will be able to see the results of the work done. Transformation and innovation need to be metabolized and not dropped by an untouchable demiurge. For these reasons, I believe that the transformation of a context or a process, must necessarily pass through the needs of people, as well. The paper aims to describe the transformation within a small-medium sized town such as Ferrara, and show the tools and methodologies that have been used. We conceived the design of a River Contract; a political-administrative-strategic tool that can outline design and operational guidelines to allow all private or public entities – that act with and for the river – to be able to benefit from the quality of living. In order to involve the citizenry and institutions, some participatory planning meetings were held using operational tools such as co-design. The Human Centered Design was the methodological approach which inspired the entire research: to put the needs, necessities and expectations of people within the strategic-planning process and project.