Maria Giulia Pezzi, PhD in European Ethnography, is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) as a member of the Social Sciences research unit, working on a research project on the development of peripheral areas in Italy, specifically in relation to the Italian National Strategy for Inner Areas. Her current research focuses on tourism policies and heritage-making strategies as development tools for rural areas, and on the role that local entrepreneurship can play in such processes from a bottom-up perspective. Alessandra Faggian is a Professor of Applied Economics, Director of Social Sciences and Vice Provost for Research at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy. She is past President of the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) and co-editor of “Jourmal in Regional Science”. Dr Faggian’s research interests lie in the fields of regional and urban economics, demography, labour economics and economics of education. Neil Reid, Ph.D. is Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo. He holds MA degrees in Geography from the University of Glasgow and Miami University and a Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University. He is an economic geographer and regional scientist with research interests in industrial location, regional economic restructuring, and local economic development. His current research focus on a number of areas including the health of metropolitan labor markets in the United States, policies to deal with decline in America’s shrinking cities, and the economic development opportunities surrounding America’s rapidly growing craft brewing industry.