Abstract
Commons (intended as institutions owning or managing collective properties and civic use lands) have historically been and still are very relevant systems for collective natural and rural resources management in mountain regions (such as forests, pasturelands, dairy huts, community buildings, mountain roads) and regional development. Nevertheless, their resilience and existence are challenged by socioeconomic and institutional, among others, changes (such as global markets penetration and their impact on utilities and preferences, demographic changes and their impacts on communities´ social composition). The main hypothesis that guides my PhD research project is that only if they innovate and transform, in terms of resources´ valuing, community of reference and rules in place, commons will be able to be resilient systems and promote sustainability in resource use, community engagement and regional development. Starting from Ostrom´s legacy, I refer to theories on stewardship, on resilience of socio-ecological systems, commoning and community economies that enable to re-conceptualize the commons in their components and identify and generate innovations and transformations. Besides applying quantitative methods like Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Resources´ Valuation methods, in the project I aim to develop and propose an applied and participatory methodology to the research with a strong connection with the commons and the communities I will investigate as case studies. The aim of my contribution is to present my PhD project (within the LERH Programm at the University of Padova) to IUFRO Conference´s audience to receive both theoretical and methodological feedbacks in order to improve the project in its research designing phase.