10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16893
In the last few decades, universities have experienced a growing integration with their local contexts, playing a fundamental role in urban and regional development processes. In such a context, new forms of convergence between the different missions of universities have also emerged in Italy, aimed at developing and co-creating sustainability in different dimensions through the involvement of local stakeholders. This article aims to highlight the driving role that universities can play in promoting sustainable local economies, moving from the example of the Cammino del Duca [Duke’s Way] – an itinerary defined and promoted by the University of Urbino Carlo Bo in collaboration with the local sections of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI), namely Montefeltro and Gubbio. In particular, this paper pays attention to the organizational process of the Cammino, highlighting its innovative aspects and unresolved critical issues to stimulate a reflection on opportunities and constraints affecting the sustainability policies of universities in interaction with local communities.
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Elena Viganò
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Urbana
Walking
Building Sustainability in the Relationship with the Territory. The Cammino del Duca (the Duke’s Way) of the University of Urbino
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Elena Viganò
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University of Urbino Carlo Bo
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Building Sustainability in the Relationship with the Territory. The Cammino del Duca (the Duke’s Way) of the University of Urbino
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                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024               139




Building Sustainability in the
Relationship with the Territory. The
Cammino del Duca (the Duke’s Way) of
the University of Urbino
PEER REVIEWED


Nico Bazzoli

University of Urbino Carlo Bo

nico.bazzoli@uniurb.it

Eduardo Barberis

University of Urbino Carlo Bo

eduardo.barberis@uniurb.it

Elisa Lello1

University of Urbino Carlo Bo

elisa.lello@uniurb.it

Jonathan Pierini

Institute of Higher Education in the Artistic Industries

jonathan.pierini@isiaurbino.net

Elena Viganò

University of Urbino Carlo Bo

elena.vigano@uniurb.it


1.        Introduction.

Over the past decades, universities have experienced an increasing
integration with their local contexts, playing a key role in urban and
regional development processes2. Usually, this process has taken place

1
 Corresponding author.
2
 Giuliano Amato, Riccardo Varaldo, and Michela Lazzeroni, La città nell'era della conoscenza e
dell'innovazione (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 2006); Arnaldo Bagnasco, “Città in cerca di università. Le
università regionali e il paradigma dello sviluppo locale”, Stato e mercato, 24 n.3 (2004): 455-474;


                                                                            Copyright 2024 The Author
                                                      This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16893                      Attribution 4.0 International License
                                                                URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              140



via technology transfer and building partnerships with local
stakeholders, aimed at producing direct and indirect economic
spillovers3. However, the compelling growth in relevance of
sustainability issues implied a recalibration of such activities.
Universities have been starting to operate to find effective solutions to
address the significant social transformations and climate and
environmental challenges currently underway4.
Within this framework, Italy has also witnessed forms of convergence
among the different missions of universities to develop local networks,
collaborations, and exchange mechanisms with public and private actors
in their catching areas5. This process is particularly relevant in more
peripheral areas, where the relationships between universities and local
communities appear particularly significant, given their generative
potential in creating and diffusing innovation and mitigating
inequalities6.
This contribution aims to highlight the promoting and driving role that
can be played by universities in the definition of sustainable local
development projects, taking as an example the path of construction and
implementation of the Cammino del Duca (the Duke’s Way), proposed by
the University of Urbino Carlo Bo in collaboration with two sections of the
Italian Alpine Club (CAI), namely Montefeltro and Gubbio. The
Cammino, which crosses an area rich in landscape, history, and nature,
but affected by phenomena of economic and social marginalization, is
meant as a project of sustainable tourism and community engagement,
consistently with University’s plural missions7.
In particular, we will focus here on the process of implementation of the
Cammino, highlighting its innovative aspects and critical issues, in order
to promote a debate on opportunities and constraints affecting
universities’ sustainability policies when interacting with local reference
contexts, to boost a culture respectful for local specificities, the
environment, and the promotion of health and well-being.
This contribution is structured as follows.
After investigating the role of universities in promoting a process of
sustainable development, the main features of the Cammino del Duca will

Michela Lazzeroni, Geografie dell’università: Esplorazioni teoriche e pratiche generative (Milano:
Mimesis, 2021).
3
   Elvira Uyarra, “Conceptualizing the Regional Roles of Universities, Implications and
Contradictions”, in European Planning Studies 18.8 (2010): 1227-1246.
4
  Gregory Trencher, et al. “Beyond the Third Mission: Exploring the Emerging University Function
of Co-creation for Sustainability” Science and Public Policy, 41, 2 (2014): 151-179.
5
  Cesare Emanuel, “Gli atenei come «luoghi terzi» della valorizzazione della conoscenza generativa
e dei processi di sviluppo locale”, edited by Michela Lazzeroni, Monica Morazzoni and Maria
Paradiso, Nuove geografie dell’innovazione e dell’informazione, 11-24.
6
  Michela Lazzeroni, “Università e innovazione nelle aree periferiche: dinamiche di sviluppo,
inclusione sociale e progetti di rigenerazione urbana”, Geotema, 59 (2019): 25-34.
7
  Nico Bazzoli, Mauro De Donatis, Elisa Lello, Filippo Martelli, Elena Viganò, and Paolo Piacentini.
"Il Cammino del Duca: un itinerario in costruzione tra università e territorio". In Itinerari per la
rigenerazione territoriale tra sviluppi reticolari e sostenibili, edited by Luisa Spagnoli. (Milano: Franco
Angeli, 2022).
                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             141



be described. Namely, we will focus on its potential contribution to the
revitalization of the area the Way crosses. Actually, the local context is
more and more declining, with contrasting visions on how to keep
together economic needs and environmental protection. Next, we will
introduce the actions carried out to trace the path of the Cammino and
share it with local populations. A special focus is devoted to the project
logo, as a key element in the visual identity of the project. Some
considerations on key driving factors and main critical issues of the
project will be reported in the conclusions.

2.    Universities and Sustainability: the Case of the Cammino del
Duca.

With the increasing awareness about the socio-environmental crises
related to the limits of existing development processes, several authors
have emphasized the need to place university institutions at the center of
the debate for the creation of a sustainable future8. These arguments
move from the recognition of their specific position within society as
unique sites for the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge,
that is, those elements that can support broad economic and social
transformations such as those related to sustainable development9. As is
well known, this implies complex challenges, requiring not only new
directions in teaching and research but also a rethinking of the very role
of universities, and their relationship with the surrounding context, at
different levels of spatial proximity.
A relevant push in this direction came with the United Nations 2030
Agenda, the first international development agenda to include higher
education both in the goal of quality education (SDG 4) and as a key player
in partnerships to achieve the other goals (SDG 17)10. This has resulted in
a clear interest by universities to pursue 2030 Agenda’s SDGs, albeit with
varying modalities and intensity11. Indeed, it should be pointed out that
university institutions are characterized by multiple values and visions
regarding sustainable development, as well as different constraints and



8
   Issa Ibrahim Berchin, Ana Regina de Aguiar Dutra and José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de
Andrade Guerra, “How do Higher Education Institutions Promote Sustainable Development? A
Literature Review”, Sustainable Development 29.6 (2021): 1204-1222; Anthony D. Cortese, “The
Critical Role of Higher Education in Creating a Sustainable Future”, Planning for higher education
31.3 (2003): 15-22; Paul Sylvestre, Rebecca McNeil and Tarah Wright, “From Talloires to Turin: A
Critical Discourse Analysis of Declarations for Sustainability in Higher Education”, Sustainability
5.4 (2013): 1356-1371.
9
   Jennie C. Stephens et al. “Higher Education as a Change Agent for Sustainability in Different
Cultures and Contexts”, International journal of sustainability in higher education 9.3 (2008): 317-338.
10
    Taya Louise Owens, “Higher Education in the Sustainable Development Goals Framework”,
European Journal of Education 52.4 (2017): 414-420.
11
    Maia Chankseliani and Tristan McCowan, “Higher Education and the Sustainable Development
Goals”, Higher Education 81.1 (2021): 1-8; Isabel Ruiz-Mallén and María Heras, “What
Sustainability? Higher Education Institutions’ Pathways to Reach the Agenda 2030 Goals”,
Sustainability 12.4 (2020): 1290.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            142



peculiarities that influence their role, as well as their goals, strategies,
and operational scope 12.
In any case, in the literature above there is quite an agreement that the
interconnectedness and complexity of current socio-ecological
emergencies require strong integration between disciplines and relevant
interactions between universities and society, building partnerships to
design and implement initiatives geared toward the pursuit of 2020
Agenda SDGs. This is especially true at the local level, where the ability of
universities to interact with the social fabric, dependent on contextual
knowledge and familiarity with communities, still has wide margins of
improvement. In this respect, both greater openness to actors outside the
academic community and the building of interconnections between
different actors with a transdisciplinary approach are needed13.
Such an orientation implies a third mission activity or a real fourth
mission dedicated to sustainability14, directed to the implementation of
cross-sectoral and wide-ranging processes and initiatives that pay special
attention to the local communities in which the universities are
embedded. On the other hand, innovative proposals aimed at promoting
sustainable development turn out to be sensitive to local contexts 15 and
should be elaborated considering the peculiarities of places to grasp their
latent potential and develop effective strategies for enhancement.
This attention to the context represents one of the main elements that,
together with contamination and sharing, animate the worksite of
“Uniurb Sostenibile” (Sustainable University of Urbino) and the actions of
the pro-rectorate of Sustainability and Enhancement of Differences at the
University of Urbino Carlo Bo. The focus is not only on building
knowledge, but also on building relationships and initiatives on
sustainability in different respects, via the collaboration and engagement
of external stakeholders, as well as the university staff, and students.
Among the various projects promoted in this perspective over the past
few years, the Cammino del Duca stands out. This route of about 100
kilometers winds between Marche and Umbria, connecting the cities of
Urbino and Gubbio —both deeply linked to the history of Duke Federico
da Montefeltro (1422-1482). This initiative is related to different missions
of the University (third mission, teaching as well as research), with the
priority aim of with the priority aim of contributing to the reconciliation
of sustainability and local economy.
A key issue of the project is represented by the role of the University as a
promoter, and actively involved in its implementation, in collaboration

12
    Andrea Cuesta-Claros, et al., “Understanding the Roles of Universities for Sustainable
Development Transformations: A Framing Analysis of University Models”, Sustainable
Development 30.4 (2022): 525-538.
13
   Julie Klein Thompson, et al., Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem Solving among Science, Technology,
and Society: An Effective Way for Managing Complexity (Springer Science & Business Media, 2001).
14
   Chiara Rinaldi, Alessio Cavicchi and Richard N.S. Robinson, “University Contributions to Co-
creating Sustainable Tourism Destinations”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism 30.9 (2022): 2144-2166.
15
   Gregory Trencher et al., “University Partnerships for Co-designing and Co-producing Urban
Sustainability", Global Environmental Change 28 (2014): 153-165.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           143



with CAI (Montefeltro and Gubbio sections), local authorities, and a
number of public and private bodies in the area. Therefore, the Cammino
becomes a debate arena with the local context, to activate many resources
to formulate a participatory proposal of slow tourism and knowledge of
the local context.
Moreover, the Cammino is defined as an open-air classroom-laboratory
for the sharing and co-creation of knowledge with the students and with
stakeholders outside the academic arena, not only in reference to the
historical, landscape, and naturalistic aspects, but also to local
environmental, socio-demographic and economic problems. In this
sense, the project also serves as a stimulus for the consolidation of
research interests in the local context, channelling part of the energies of
the teaching and research staff towards multi-interdisciplinary scientific
insights that also intend to address the theme of local economies of
marginal areas. In particular, the focus is on models combining income
and employment creation with respect for the environment and the
protection of well-being and health.


3.   A Trade-off between Environmental Sustainability and the
Enhancement of Local Economies?

The route of the Cammino del Duca is divided into five stages that touch
the territory of six inland municipalities in the Province of Pesaro and
Urbino and two municipalities in the Province of Perugia. In addition to
high orographic and landscape variability, the spatial context of the
Cammino is quite heterogeneous in terms of spatial marginality and socio-
economic characteristics. Two of the eight municipalities crossed by the
route are classified, according to the National Strategy for Inner Areas, as
poles, two as belt areas, and four as intermediate [Table 1]. Although only
the latter falls within the delimitation of the Inner Areas, the entire area
under consideration is affected by processes of population shrinkage
(more advanced, as in the case of smaller and peripheral municipalities,
or less). These municipalities show also socio-demographic and labor
market indicators that, in several cases, are among the worst in the
regional context.
Depopulation is just one piece of a larger mosaic of attrition - economic,
social, demographic, and related to the supply of services - that
undermines the well-being of resident populations and the ability to
sustain local economies. Thus, in this area straddling the Umbria-
Marches Apennines, albeit with different intensities, the typical issues of
inland areas arise along with difficulties attributable to the various forms
of decline that have recently involved intermediate territories 16.


16
  Francesco Curci, Arturo Lanzani and Agim Kërçuku, “Le geografie emergenti della contrazione
insediativa in Italia: analisi interpretative e segnali per le politiche”, CRIOS, 19-20 (2020): 8-19.
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024               144



 Table 1| Main socio-economic characteristics of the area traversed by the Cammino del Duca.
           Source: elaboration on data from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).
                                      * Labour force aged 15-89 years
 ** At provincial level, the activity and unemployment rate – year 2022 are 55,1% and 4,6% (Pesaro-
                                 Urbino), and 53,1% and 7,3% (Perugia).

                    Group in
                        the                    Change in                                 Unemploy
                                 Inhabitant                    Old age       Activity
                    National                   population                                ment rate
 Municipalities                       s                      index 2022     rate 2019
                     Strategy                      (%)                                     2019
                                    2022                         %              %
                    for Inner                   2011-2022                                   %
                      areas

 Acqualagna        Intermedi
                                    4.182          -7,4         186,2          56,3          9,7
 (PU)                  ate

                   Intermedi
 Cagli (PU)                         8.068         -11,1         274,3          51,0          8,5
                       ate
 Fermignano
                      Belt          8.239          -4,6         155,6          58,5          9,2
 (PU)
                   Intermedi
 Frontone (PU)                      1.204         -11,7         276,6          52,1          11,0
                       ate
                     Areal
 Gubbio (PG)                       30.650          -6,0         235,4          52,0          8,8
                     centre
 Provincia PG           -          640.482         -2,8         211,8          53,8          10,7

 Provincia PU           -          349.818         -3,9         201,1          55,5          10,5
 Scheggia e
                      Belt          1.280         -13,4         300,7          45,4          11,6
 Pascelupo (PG)
 Serra
                   Intermedi
 Sant'Abbondio                       919          -17,1         471,6          46,3          10,4
                       ate
 (PU)
                     Areal
 Urbino (PU)                       13.772         -11,5         262,5          53,1          7,8
                     Centre


In these rural and mountainous areas, socio-economic trends in the last
decades show an urgent need to sustain the local economy and
employment. At the same time, these needs often tend to conflict with
environmental protection goals, making the reconciliation of these two
dimensions problematic. Indeed, in some cases, an (outdated) view
persists, maintaining that environmental initiatives can be constraints for
the development of local business and economies.
As a result, openly hostile positions gain momentum, harming initiatives
aimed to reconcile income and employment creation with environmental
protection making the implementation of sustainable economy projects
even more complex. On the other hand, the increase in the frequency and
intensity of extreme weather phenomena related to climate change—
which have severely affected in recent months many of the municipalities
involved in the Cammino—is showing more and more that a strong
commitment is needed, not only in the mitigation of the greenhouse
effect, but also in the conscious and responsible land management.
                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   145



4.     Building the Cammino del Duca.
In the context of the pandemic and the rediscovery of inland destinations,
awareness of the potential of slow tourism linked to walking routes has
further asserted itself. This awareness, combined with a careful
assessment of the paths crossing the Marche and Umbria regions, moved
a group of professors and researchers from the University of Urbino
toward the definition of an initial hypothesis of a route for the Cammino
del Duca. This was intended as a basis for a shared definition involving a
working group extended to the CAI sections of the territories concerned.
Following numerous meetings and discussions, a draft route was agreed
upon in the spring of 2021 to be promoted and tested through experience.
With the aim of directly assessing the feasibility of the route by different
categories of users, an initiative open to the public was then organised to
walk the five identified stages. The experimentation, which took place
from 26 to 30 July 2021, was preceded by appropriate promotion and
communication initiatives and initial mapping of the accommodation
facilities, commercial activities and elements of significant landscape,
geological and cultural interest in the vicinity of the route, to propose
them as points of refreshment, refuelling, overnight stays and thematic
deepening.
An intense listening and discussion activity with the territories concerned
accompanied the event. At the end of each stage, near the places of arrival
and overnight stay, public meetings were organised in which the group of
walkers interfaced with various representatives of local institutions and
communities, and with individual citizens. These initiatives served to
make the Cammino del Duca project known to institutional stakeholders
and the inhabitants of the municipalities crossed and, at the same time,
to understand the needs of the territories and the main issues to be
addressed for the implementation of the Cammino itself.
The importance the working group attached to listening was also
reflected in the group of walkers who were testing the route for the first
time. In fact, a prominent role was reserved for gathering feedback and
information from the participants to obtain an initial assessment of the
route, critical points, and aspects to be improved.
The main issues that emerged from this activity made it possible to
initiate a process of redefining certain parts of the route, providing for
some alternative paths, also based on different users’ profiles and
interests [Figure 1]. This revision of the Cammino was carried out by the
CAI sections involved in the project, bearing in mind specific criteria such
as the use of existing paths and roads, the state of maintenance of the
pathways, the need to avoid asphalt roads as much as possible, the safety
requirements for usability, the length of the stages, the difference in
altitude, the physical effort required and the possibility of guaranteeing
at least a minimum logistical support at the stage points.
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             146




     Figure 1| The Path of the Cammino del Duca (in red) with the alternative path (in yellow).


The success with the public and the good feedback received led to the
organisation of a second structured walking activity from 29 June to 3 July
2022, with the aim of continuing the itinerant construction process of the
project and further strengthening the relations between the University of
Urbino and the local stakeholders, in a generative perspective.
At the same time, the process of institutional recognition of the Cammino
del Duca by both the regions and the municipalities involved was
initiated, with a view to its inclusion in the Atlante dei Cammini (Atlas of
the Ways) of Italy, through the preparation of technical reports, the
survey of routes and the design of the logo. The latter, in particular,
represented an important phase in defining the identity of the Cammino
and in helping to increase its knowledge on the part of both the local
populations and those potentially interested in walking it and getting to
know, from multiple perspectives, the territory along which it winds.

5.       Communicating the Cammino del Duca.
Developing the Cammino del Duca included a design activity in the field
of graphic design and visual communication aimed at creating a graphic
sign and an identity system capable of responding to different
communication needs. Consistently with the objectives of the project and
its implementation strategy, which identify the centrality of the
university’s action and the definition of a network of local stakeholders as
a distinctive feature, it was decided to entrust the graphic design and
communication project to the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie
Artistiche (ISIA) di Urbino, involving a dedicated team of students,
researchers, and lecturers. The choice seemed particularly appropriate
given the Institute's teaching and research activities centred on the
redefinition of the communication project based on principles of
                                                           URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          147



sustainability, the attention to the complexity of contexts, the intended
enhancement of the differences, and the understanding of designing as a
tool to stimulate participation and a sense of belonging.
First of all, designing an identity system for the Cammino del Duca meant
questioning the functions to which it must respond both in terms of
identity and directional information. These dimensions of graphic design
refer to specific disciplinary fields: that of corporate identity, understood
as “the set of images or ideas or qualities of an entity that people have or
are formed by relating to them through elements, called touch points,
such as brands, buildings, products, packaging, printed matter, ..." 17 and
that of wayfinding, a branch of information design and environmental
graphic, or that field of design which, including different skills, deals with
the implications of communication design in the built environment.
It was, therefore, necessary to question how the cultural, theoretical, and
technical tools of identity and wayfinding design could account not only
for the specificities of the object of application, the Cammino del Duca,
but also for the process of its design from a collaborative, sustainable and
inclusive perspective.
In recent years, designers and communication design scholars—among
others—have become increasingly aware of the need to address territorial
communication issues and enhance the specificities of places. This need
has emerged from an understanding of the phenomena described above
in terms of a progressive marginalisation of peripheral areas and, at the
same time, from the awareness of the role that tourism, in its various
forms, can play in coping with processes of marginalisation and
depopulation.
While in many cases, the response of graphic and communication design
has been that of territorial branding, which has applied the logic of the
promotion of consumer goods and services to the communication of
territories, a front of critical reflection has also opened up, which has
concentrated its efforts on redefining communication design,
increasingly moving away from a vision of design as a tool for regulating
the forms of the visible referred to a subject, in favour of designing
conceived as a tool for the enhancement of differences.
From this perspective, the identity system is no longer necessarily a
closed synthetic sign but it can rather consist of a variable identity, a
writing system that modifies itself on the logic of a grammar designed
from time to time according to needs18.
This non-finiteness and adaptability of graphic design is a central feature
in designing identities applied to contexts. If places are bearers of
multiple meanings—some being more stable, linked to their formal
characteristics, and others generated by uses and projections—the role of


17
   Frederick Henri Kay Henrion and Alan Parkin, Design Coordination and Corporate Image (London:
Studio Vista, 1967).
18
   Ulrike Felsing, Dynamic Identities in Cultural and Public Contexts (Zurich: Lars Müller, 2010).
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            148



communication is to hold this complexity together, interpreting the spirit
of the place and, at the same time, allowing everyone to interact with it 19.
On a communicative level, this means designing a graphic identity that
incorporates characteristics of variability, combining distinctive graphic
characters with a non-imposing logic, one that is sensitive to contexts,
aware of sustainability over time and of the possible appropriation of the
system by users. In this regard, Piscitelli, Ferrara and Guida 20 mention the
case study of the Lost Cities paths near Aleppo in Syria, emphasising how
its graphic-wayfinding system, making use of cement posts well
integrated with the context, is characterised by a low production cost,
does not require special maintenance and envisages the local
procurement of raw materials.
The graphic design of the Cammino del Duca consists of an acronym
(CDD) whose layout is variable with respect to a basic grid and in which
the letters are connected by straight lines and curves that recall
cartographic notational systems [Figure 2].




                           Figure 2| The Logo of the Cammino del Duca.


Realised in black and white, the logo-mark system has little impact on the
natural environment in which it will be used. It is versatile, economical
due to the use of a single colour; it can be easily reproduced: a
characteristic that also allows it to be written by hand on irregular
surfaces such as wood or stone found along the Way. The system's
configurations also make it possible to use different variants for each
point of the Way, or for a set of points along it, emphasising the specificity
of each place without compromising the overall effectiveness of the
identity project [Figure 3].




19
   Daniela Piscitelli, Cinzia Ferrara and Francesco E. Guida, “Design e comunicazione visiva”, in I
paesaggi culturali. Costruzione, promozione, gestione, Ed. Michela Barosio (Milano: Egea, 2013), 329-
352.
20
   Ibidem.
                                                          URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          149




                   Figure 3| The “Cammino del Duca” Logo: possible variants.


These characteristics define a graphic system that is sufficiently open to
be offered for use and appropriation by all the subjects of the network as
well as the end users, in the awareness that each sign acquires meaning
through use over time.

6.    Some Concluding Remarks on the Nodes and Criticalities of the
Process.

As in any project endowed with a certain complexity, the implementation
process of the Cammino del Duca has brought out some interrelated
nodes and specific critical issues. These are related both to the inclusion
of the project in the framework of constraints, opportunities, guidelines
and policies marking the local development path, and to the role assumed
by the University.
Although there is some agreement within the framework of sector studies
about the need to include local stakeholders in sustainable development
projects, their actual involvement does not appear to be without
problems. The issues underlying this difficulty can be multiple and
related as much to the technical capacity of local stakeholders to
cooperate as to their willingness and conviction to do so21. In fact, in the
experience of implementing the Cammino del Duca, it should be pointed
out that the participation of actors outside the promoting group is, in
some cases, complex and constitutes a dimension to which specific


21
  Chiara Rinaldi et al., “Universities and Smart Specialisation Strategy: From Third Mission to
Sustainable Development Co-creation”, International journal of sustainability in higher education
19.1 (2018): 67-84.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   150



energies should be devoted, especially about the engagement of actors
and their contribution over time. In view of the final launch, the various
formal steps to arrive at the recognition of the Cammino by the Marche
Region and the Umbria Region will hopefully represent an opportunity to
strengthen relations with local authorities and the various socio-
economic actors.
A second element of criticality, partly connected to the previous one,
concerns the role assumed by the University as a co-proponent and co-
leader in the implementation of the project. This specific role of the
University of Urbino testifies to a direct commitment of the academic
community to the territory, which is also rich in innovative aspects. At the
same time, it risks representing a limitation to the systematization and
consolidation of the Cammino. To allow the project to "walk with its own
legs," it is necessary for the University to take on a different role from the
current one, less tied to activities in the field and more oriented toward
strengthening the participation of actors and the sharing of vision and
goals, leading to the creation of a network of public and private entities
that will be responsible for the promotion, maintenance, care, and
usability of the itinerary. This issue about governance opens up the need
to broaden and consolidate the relationships between the actors involved,
accompanying them on a collaborative path fueled by the sharing of some
basic elements about local sustainable economies.
Finally, the difficulty in reconciling different visions about local
economies and “development”, manifesting themselves in individual
orientations and in the proposal of divergent projects in terms of land
management choices and enhancement mechanisms, should be recalled.
This is an area in which the university is called upon to make multiple
contributions. First, regarding the promotion of sustainability, it can act
through the proposal of innovative approaches to environmental
management in its activities, that can be adopted by the different entities
that come into contact with the university, fueling a process of
progressive contamination 22. Second, its action can be aimed at the
definition and promotion of socio-economic patterns which are able to
take into account the specific needs of different territorial contexts and
their social groups together with respect of the environment and
landscape. In this sense, the university can play a role as a mediator and
glue between different local contexts, institutions and stakeholders,
facilitating the elaboration of a strategic vision and the goals to be
achieved to build a truly sustainable future.


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