Valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale: il ruolo del capitale territoriale. / Valorization of cultural heritage: the role of territorial capital.

This paper draws on the concept of territorial capital as a set of local, tangible as well as intangible, public as well as private assets that characterizes territories and represents an area’s potential in terms of local, human, artificial, organizational, relational, and/or cognitive competitiveness. This of course encompasses cultural heritage. The consideration of these elements is paramount to defining growth strategies that are custom-tailored to any given region, city, or territory. The above topic highlights the extent to which a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach is warranted to activate effective local development policies. Therefore, models and instruments aimed at valorizing local heritage as a whole ought to be identified and implemented through a working method entailing community involvement and empowerment and based not only on individual building valorization, but also on the relationships linking assets, competencies, and stakeholders. The decision as to new intended uses, for example, should be taken not only based on a general compatibility assessment, but also on the peculiar territorial capital available in an area. Thus, a document illustrating connections with the local relations web and defining possible future scenarios at a large scale should be made compulsory during the pre-design stage in order to more easily identify potential public and private partners.