Culture Heritage And Territorial Identities For Urban Development

From the 1970s onwards, many towns and cities have experienced deindustrialization processes, while seeing a gradual growth of tertiarization and diversification of services, including cultural ones. With the different, both positive and negative, effects introduced by new cultural interpretations of cities (e.g., culture in public spaces, cultural and creative industries, culture as marketing tools, cultural commodification, etc.), the concept of culture has become increasingly associated with urban image and identity. In finding solutions within regeneration processes, policies often rely on tools from the cultural and creative fields. Additionally, built material and immaterial heritage can have significant roles: e.g., by converting heritage sites and buildings through cultural projects or new functions, or capitalizing on specific traditions and place memory for local identity and place attachment. This SI focuses on cultural approaches in connection with urban development and gather contributions from various research fields. It addresses researchers and academics from social sciences who are interested in topics such as: cultural activities and their role in urban development; cities (re)constructing their identity; culture as a relevant component of current spatial planning policies; urban strategies, attracting creative people; urban image, heritage and culture; culture, local memory and local identities; heritage and industrial culture; subcultures within cities and processes of urban change.

This book explores and substantiates the role of cultural heritage as an engine for local socio-economic development. Starting from the assumption that cultural heritage represents a valuable, unique and irreplaceable resource for European regions, it identifies and quantitatively analyzes tourism and territorial identity as two different channels through which cultural heritage can influence local socio-economic development. The book highlights the fact that cultural heritage not only has a positive influence on local cultures, societies and environments, but also plays a role in the process of local economic growth. Providing comprehensive empirical evidence that explains and discusses whether and how the endowment of cultural heritage benefits local socio-economic growth, it will appeal to scholars and students of cultural economics and regional science, and anyone interested in sustainable socio-economic development.

This book provides insight into the topic of place and territorial identity, which involves both the dimension of collective belonging and the politics of territorial planning and enhancement. It considers the social, economic and political effects of territorial identity representations among others in terms of mystification, spatial fetishism, and the creation of place and territorial stereotypes. A mixed methodology is employed to research case studies at diverse territorial scales which are relevant to the impact of a variety of factors on place/territorial identity processes such as migration, political and economic changes, natural disasters, land use changes, etc. Visual imagery, constructing visual discourses and living within visual cultures are placed in the foreground and refer to among others the changes and challenges introduced by the Internet and social networks in place/territory representations and self-representations; identity politics and its impact on place/territorial identity representations; discourses in shaping representations and self-representations of territorial/place-based identities related to collective memory, cultural heritage, invented tradition, imagined communities and other key notions.

This book seeks to enhance the cultural dimension of sustainable development and particularly focuses on minor historic centers and their natural and rural landscapes. In a society becoming ever more globalized, without territorial restrictions in the production of goods and able to reproduce in China the goods and product characteristic of South American crafts (to mention just two extremes), the only element that can still be contextualized is heritage identity: the result of close integration between cultural assets, intangible assets and settled communities. Thus, heritage identity is one of the few elements, together with natural resources, which has the potential for economic development that is still firmly rooted in places and local populations. These towns are often the centerpiece of urban landscapes and geographical areas with original features, not always but often as individual places within networks of minor historical centers linked by shared history, traditions and/or natural elements (rivers, forests, river systems or other natural elements). They are outside the major tourist networks, even if now there is a budding interest in the touristic exploitation of these environments. So, they are the right places to pursue a sustainable and local development with a cultural perspective. This book is a product of the VIVA_EASTPART project (Valorisation and Improving of management of Small Historic Centres in the eastern PARTnership region), under the EU-funded “ENPI Eastern Partnership” program. It complements the more practically-focused work that is in production from this group, more focused on empirical approaches to the development of minor historic centers of the nations involved. Though the book has been influenced by this research and working experience, the authors are solely responsible for the content and opinions presented.

This book explores the in-depth relationship between historic-cultural heritage and landscape, urban, and regional planning. It analyzes recent cultural and discipline positions and addresses research to interpret legacy values and the necessity for conservation within the urban setting. It also presents a method that helps urban planners to implement the suggestions, based on extensive knowledge of topographic methods and urban archaeology, to enhance the shaping and planning of the historic and present-day city. A rapid evolution of techniques and methods that provide innovative planning instruments and contribute to conservation projects involving cities and territories is now being witnessed in urban planning. Actors involved in the planning process use an organic and multidisciplinary vision of techniques and methods to understand the relation between the historic-cultural goods and their settlement context. Through urban archaeology it is now possible to orient—in a systematic way—interventions in the historic centers of European cities and document the origin and evolution of the urban shape, to reconcile renewal demand and preservation of ancient heritage.

Report presents a series of analyses and recommendations for fostering the role of culture for sustainable development. Drawing on a global survey implemented with nine regional partners and insights from scholars, NGOs and urban thinkers, the report offers a global overview of urban heritage safeguarding, conservation and management, as well as the promotion of cultural and creative industries, highlighting their role as resources for sustainable urban development. Report is intended as a policy framework document to support governments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development and the New Urban Agenda.

This book presents research efforts in the field of heritage. According to the principle “Open Minds-Open Science”, the approach of the researchers helps us to define, establish and affirm heritage in the cultural, social and political dimension of today’s world based on what we have achieved and be specific to the realities of the 21st century. Cultural heritage is made up of many big and small things. It is preserved through books, artifacts, objects, images, photographs, art and oral tradition. Sometimes we can touch and see what a culture is, other times it is intangible. From this point of view, this book, Heritage, is transdisciplinary, and contains the most diverse topics related to culture, art, nature, science, diplomacy and cultural policy.

This book presents strategies and models for cultural heritage enhancement from a multidisciplinary perspective. It discusses identifying historical, current and possible future models for the revival and enhancement of cultural heritage, taking into consideration three factors – respect for the inherited, contemporary and sustainable future development. The goal of the research is to contribute to the enhancement of past cultural heritage renovation and enhancement methods, improve the methods of spatial protection of heritage and contribute to the development of the local community through the use of cultural, and in particular, architectural heritage. Cultural heritage is perceived primarily through conservation, but that comes with limitations. If heritage is perceived and experienced solely through conservation, it becomes a static object. It needs to be made an active subject, which implies life in heritage as well as new purposes and new life for abandoned heritage. Heritage can be considered as a resource that generates revenue for itself and for the sustainability of the local community. To achieve this, it should be developed in accordance with contemporary needs and technological achievements, but on scientifically based and professional criteria and on sustainable models. The research presented in this book is based on the approach of Heritage Urbanism in a combination of experiments (case studies) and theory.