Sarno, Iole (2026) From Territories to Communities. A New Perspective for Made in Italy. [Tesi di dottorato]

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Abstract

This doctoral research is developed within the framework of the MICS – Made in Italy Circular and Sustainable programme, an Extended Partnership funded by the Italian Ministry of Uni- versity and Research (MUR) under Mission 4 “Education and Research” of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The study investigates how contemporary processes of digital transformation are reshaping the relationships between design, territory and community within the evolving socio-productive landscape of the Made in Italy, with a specific focus on the role of design practices within these transformations. Within this framework, the Italian Made in Italy production system is adopted as a privileged case of observation, enabling interpretative analyses of dynamics that are relevant beyond this specific territorial and productive context. The research reconstructs the evolution of the notion of territory by tracing the transition from the model of the industrial district to more distributed, platform-based and digitally mediated productive geographies. In this shift, territory is no longer interpreted as a purely geographical or administrative entity, but as a relational and hybrid construct, defined by networks of interactions, infrastructures, practices and shared knowledge. Within this framework, the relationship between design and territory is rearticulated: territory itself becomes a product-system whose cultural, social and productive value can be activated and enhanced through design-driven strategies. In parallel, the thesis examines the transformation of the concept of community, moving from spatially bounded forms toward networked and digitally mediated configurations. Virtual, atopical and distributed communities do not replace locally grounded social formations but intersect with them, generating hybrid and transtopical communities within which practices, knowledge and identities circulate across physical and digital environments. Building on this theoretical framework, the research analyses contemporary design research trajectories in Italy through a critical reading of two complementary perspectives: the mapping developed by the Design, Territory and Heritage (D:T:P) Working Group of the Italian Society of Design, and a set of PNRR-funded design research projects. Read together, these frameworks reveal converging orientations that frame design as a situated, collaborative and hybrid practice operating across multiple fields that express the contemporary values embedded in the Made in Italy. By combining historical reconstructions from the literature with field-based investigations and contemporary phenomena – such as distributed production ecosystems, FabLabs and phy- gital infrastructures – the study reframes the role of design as an enabling practice that activates new forms of socio-productive proximity and mediating knowledge flows across hybrid physical-digital contexts within the Made in Italy landscape.

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