Agro-social parks: an analysis of planning and design projects for Italian periurban areas

In planning, the notion of an ‘agricultural park’ has been used as a mechanism that attempts to acknowledge and protect agricultural production near urbanized areas while providing a wide range of services and becoming essential public spaces for the nearby cities. The first parks focused primarily on containing urban expansion. In contrast, more recent parks address other aspects, such as territorial cohesion, food sovereignty, and supply chains. This paper analyzes three cases in Italy that were part of nine presented during a doctoral seminar. It aims to understand the role of ‘design’ within the planning process of these types of parks and how it interacts with their management and governance dimensions, as well as its potential for provoking new practices, innovative forms of production, and for becoming a planning and design mechanism for periurban areas.