Il mondo in forma di racconto : Il metodo narrativo nella ricerca geografica

Abstract

The volume offers a critical exploration of the potential and challenges associated with the use of narratives in geographic research, highlighting the need for a reflective and responsible approach in mediating between subjectivity, space, and representation. In close dialogue with the so-called “narrative turn” in the social sciences, the author rethinks and redefines the heuristic value of stories as tools of knowledge and agents of territorialization in local contexts. Narrative thus emerges as a relational and performative practice, capable of activating processes of shared interpretation, generating collective meaning, and mobilizing project resources. The transdisciplinary perspective adopted combines epistemological reflection with field research, focusing in particular on the transformative potential of biographical methods and everyday life stories, as demonstrated by the case study of the former Raw Tobacco Warehouse in Lecce. Here, the narrative-visual approach functions as a tool for cultural and social regeneration, able to restore voice to marginalized subjects and to reweave new community ties. This approach is grounded in the School of Placetelling at the University of Salento, which proposes a narrative model aimed at enhancing memories, identities, and community visions, contributing to the co-production of knowledge and the participatory construction of places. The work is addressed to those who seek to combine theory and practice, placing narrative practice at the heart of a public geography, engaged and aware of the ethical responsibility inherent in every form of storytelling.