Belìce Valley: from earthquake to local development perspectives

This paper aims to retrace, through a critic study of the scientific debate, the Belìce Valley’s territorial context after the 1968 violent earthquake and to identify the actual development perspectives of the area. By using official dataset and consolidated bibliography we identify the peculiar weakness of the socio-economical structure of Belìce Valley, a marginal territory of Sicily (Italy), when the earthquake stroke, but also the start of a local identity building process in the aftermath of the seism. We also recognize, in the LAG—Local Action Group—strategy, a possibility to strenghten, nowadays, the local development of the area through the utilization of its milieu and its own potentialities.