Shaping imaginaries in marginalands: between dependence and capacity to aspire

This article investigates the imaginaries of local development emerging in four marginal areas of Southern Italy involved in the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI). Drawing on Appadurai’s concepts of “compliance” and “capacity to aspire”, the paper explores how local government actors negotiate the tension between dependence on externally driven development models and attempts to construct autonomous territorial visions. Based on interviews, ethnographic observations and documentary analysis, the study develops an original typology of development imaginaries structured around two dimensions: the origin of imaginaries (endogenous/exogenous) and strategic orientation (autonomous/dependent). The findings show that imaginaries in marginal areas are neither entirely imposed from above nor fully endogenous, but emerge through unstable and adaptive combinations of institutional constraints, local agency and processes of indigenization. In particular, tourism-related imaginaries reveal how external policy frameworks and dominant narratives are selectively reinterpreted, translated, and territorialized by local actors. The article contributes to the debate on left-behind places and place-based development by showing how imaginaries mediate between structural marginality and local aspirational capacities.