Il ‘valore intrinseco’ degli agroecosistemi. Approcci teorici e questioni di metodo di una ricerca-azione sul territorio periurbano milanese

The present contribution has three main objectives: i) to outline the history of the development of the Ecosystem Services paradigm, which is well-known in the international scientific arena and has nowadays also become established within spatial planning practices at the national scale, and the one of the Nature Contribution to People paradigm, which has not been yet introduced in the Italian debate; ii) to describe the trans-disciplinary methodological assessment of an action-research conducted in the eastern and south-eastern edges of the Municipality of Milan through the collaboration of researchers and scholars with different backgrounds of the University of Milan and local actors; iii) to show the first results of the action-research mentioned collected at the Agroforesta Urbana of the Vettabbia Valley. The reflections here shared are intended to relate these three aspects, which constitute the authors’ own areas of research, to the elements that characterise the Bioeconomics of Nicholas Georgescu-Rogen. In pursuing this aim, the concept of intrinsic value and the reflections to which its dual formulation has subsequently led are particularly useful. The detection of the multiple socio-cultural values present within the territory are fundamental to implementing effective governance strategies and promoting through them regenerative co-habitation practices between human societies and ecosystems no longer postponable.