Urban agriculture and social innovation. The case of the “Salus W Space” project in the city of Bologna

Today Urban Agriculture (UA) is a worldwide phenomena, with a long history and consists of many kinds of practices. In this contribution we want to shed light, on a theoretical level of analysis, on the connection between urban agriculture and social innovation. Starting from defining social innovation through the lens of territorial development and people centered development, we introduce urban agriculture as a field of practicing integrated and multidimensional innovation. Through this theoretical framework we present the “Salus W space” project, financed by the European program “Urban innovation action”. The project is aimed at the regeneration of a former private hospital called Villa Salus, which has been abandoned for many years. The project sets out to convert the structure into an innovative space, which is open to welcome refugees and people with housing needs. It is open to the inhabitants of the local neighborhood and the city. It is based on three main pillars: intercultural Wellbeing, Welfare and Welcoming. Finally, the contribution will identify some challenges in terms of social innovation.