L’Abruzzo dello sviluppo locale: fra eredità storica, territorializzazione e vulnerabilità

The aim of this contribution is to provide some insights on local development in Abruzzo, pointing out the recent economic trends in the light of the historical inheritance. To fulfil the purpose, two case studies are analysed, each of them expressive, in some way paradigmatic, of the concrete meaning that the theoretical concept of development has assumed in Abruzzo, highlighting positive criticalities alongside positive factors, questioning their capacity for resilience in today’s unfavourable economic period. The Val Vibrata area is a well-recognized industrial district, which in recent years has suffered a very marked phase of crisis, at least as opposed to a certain liveliness of the local community. The Marsica area is an agro-urban territory with a complex development path, historically conditioned by its natural environment, now starting towards a gradual transition towards significant outsourcing. The two territories studied, even with different development trajectories, underline some common traits: a first expansionary dynamic of development, which has led to a substantial marginalization of the debate around the programming of resources, which is superimposed, as a new key, a substantial rediscovery of local actors, whose requests are starting to become more and more important, especially in recent years, in an unfavourable economic period, including through forms of administrative reorganization.