(Dis/Re)Articulate Contexts Identities:

The article reflects on the cultural, social, and political role of the ‘place’ construct for a meaningful social regeneration of communities within the dynamics of culture, power, and economy. We focus on the role of public spaces in the framework of an action-research project – SMOTIES – to develop civic engagement in remote and semi-rural European contexts through participatory processes. It involved the community of X Village, a town of approximately 500 inhabitants in the XX area (Italy). The research reflects on design as an aesthetic and political language and on making, regenerating, and redefining place-rooted collectives and cultures by rearticulating the area’s social and cultural foundations with its communities to enable all voices to be heard and to make interactions with and through the tangible environment. The research approach is positioned in the interplay between participatory design, foresight methodologies, design for social innovation and relational art.