New Participatory Educational Spaces. Shared Urban Regeneration and The Role of Geography in lifelong learning of and about the territory

The fight against land consumption and sustainable urban development are closely linked and represent the most important challenges of our time, in line with the EU's environmental ambition. Soil sealing, one of the most important causes of its consumption, derives precisely from urban expansion. The reuse of existing urban buildings would allow us to limit the further overbuilding of interstitial and rural green spaces due to urban dispersion, implementing the protection of the soil, an essential resource for human survival. Among the actions to combat this serious problem is shared urban regeneration which, through the recovery of degraded areas, involves the urban community in a participatory project. From this perspective, the city can be considered an open-air laboratory, an educational and relational environment for continuous learning. In this context, knowledge of one's living space becomes crucial for conscious territoriality. In Italy there are numerous shared planning initiatives in the territory, especially in neighbourhoods, and one could see in these spaces and participatory moments a new destination for the geographical discipline and the teaching of geography: spread knowledge of and about the territory outside conventional spaces, making this knowledge a tool for action for the shared planning of one's living spaces, educating active and aware citizenship. This with the aim of spreading knowledge of and about the territory outside of conventional spaces, making geographical knowledge an action tool for the shared planning of common living spaces, educating active and aware citizenship.