The peripheries have been considered over the years as a crucial policy challenge that has oriented policies and strategies at different levels of government. On the other hand, measures that stimulate local contexts to develop specific policies have assumed an extremely episodic and unpredictable character in which the public debate on urban regeneration has remained largely dominated by that of extraordinary and emergency intervention on the peripheries. The paper analyses the case study of transformation of the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa in Palermo with the new Cre.Zi Plus platform transforming a neglected and abandoned building in a peripheral area by delivering services to the community. Bottom up processes are a resource, but it is also necessary to go beyond "self-defense" operations, avoiding the risk of continuing to relegate the role of the urban project and policies to a mere application of standards and indicators. Starting from the diversity and richness of the individual stories of social innovation and urban regeneration in the peripheries, it is necessary to build overall visions capable of overcoming the fragmentation of the initiatives and of constructing a framework from which to guide processes, recognize, enable and involve the subjects that bring innovation.