Abstract: Faced with the economic crisis that is affecting in particular the Western countries, in October 2012 in Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy) began the experience of the "Forum for Commons and Solidarity Economy". It is configured as a territorial laboratory in which different areas of knowledge, different subjects and different experiences confront each other with the purpose of sharing some principles for the definition and legal recognition of new directions for local policy. Nowadays more than 50 territorial actors from the whole region are joined in this experience, discussing about new models for the local economy. The study analyzes this process by an action research approach that means that this experience joins two different aspects: learning and doing.