The Role of the Territory in an Educating City: Two Italian Examples of Participatory Urban Planning

The objective of this paper is to stimulate further reflection on the concept of the Educating City by showcasing two Italian participatory planning initiatives. The analysis focuses on the utility of knowing the surrounding territory to develop an informed and engaged citizenry; the city's key role in education and participatory space in a learning society; finally, the strategies implemented to instruct the community on its territory and to encourage the active participation in its evolution. The focal point of reflection is thus the city as an 'open' educational environment composed of spatial elements closely linked by social relations. Within this environment, its actors influence one another and engage in constructive communication and collaboration towards the co-design of shared living spaces. In this sense, comprehensive knowledge of the territory can contribute to the development of cooperative citizenship whose actions impact both the communal living spaces and the social fabric that populates them. Thus, through continuous learning about the territory, the urban community can acquire skills in conscious self-determination and effectively participate in the governance of the urban space. A virtuous process that cannot avoid considering the 'situated context' and the education that facilitates the sharing and expression of the integration needs of the urban community in the decision-making processes on the future development of its own territory.