Today, in some countries, including Italy, the phenomenon of depopulation is dramatic: notwithstanding the recent increase of interest towards cultural heritage and attention to social and environmental problems related to big urban areas, in reality, many small towns and villages continue to lose inhabitants.

The history of European small towns, often located in peripheral, internal or mountain areas, almost always concerns people moving away, abandonments and, only rarely, people coming back. Migrations, falling birth rates, natural catastrophes, epidemics, wars, climate change, new road systems, cultural and social transformations: these are only a few of the numerous factors which, over the time - singularly or jointly, suddenly or gradually -, have led people to leave their places of origin.

In this perspective, the conference intends to be a moment of in-depth analysis on the reasons that caused, and continue to cause, the depopulation of villages and small towns.

The conference intends also to investigate the effects – permanent or reversible – which those processes have produced on the landscape and in the local communities. In losing inhabitants, in fact, local communities risk losing their cultural identity, architectural heritage deteriorates rapidly, working activities are abandoned and ancient traditions risk being forgotten. In addition, hydro geological instability often relevant increases due to the absence of land maintenance and, simultaneously, urban congestion grows unsustainably.

Moreover, the conference intends to launch a wide discussion on possible strategies aimed at contrasting depopulation phenomena and identifying solutions in order to valorise abandoned small towns.