As urban populations continue to grow, cities are compelled to tackle new challenges of a social, economic, and environmental nature. Therefore, it is necessary to limit what has been hindering the sustainable development of cities to overcome them and ensure their future prosperity. Since cities also depend on local and regional material and immaterial cultural resources, this contribution will consider culture-based urban development as a means to promote citizen participation. In the last decade, cultural heritage has become a prominent tool for social and economic improvement. It has also made its way into various European and international policies where cultural heritage is placed at the center of sustainable development. Consequently, interest in cultural heritage can help cities develop by attracting investments and creating job opportunities, as well as by embracing cultural identity, sense of belonging, and social cohesion. However promising culture-based strategies may seem, ensuring their successful implementation for the development of urban contexts is challenging and requires further exploration. For this reason, community participation is considered a promising approach. Local communities can themselves point out the difficulties facing their cities and take part in their problem-solving processes. Nonetheless, collaborating with local communities is problematic due to the digital gap within communities and the struggle to promote cooperation between non-experts with policymakers and other experts. Thus, the objective of this contribution is to enhance the relationship between “communities” and their “cultural heritage” through the exploitation of enabling digital tools as the means for enriching participatory approaches. As affirmation, this contribution will demonstrate the methods and processes through which new forms of community participation are possible and will showcase projects and good practices where these strategies have been effectively realized.

Enriching the “Communities-Cultural Heritage” Relationship to Ensure Effective Culture-Based Urban Development

D. Fanzini;N. Zreika;
2024-01-01

Abstract

As urban populations continue to grow, cities are compelled to tackle new challenges of a social, economic, and environmental nature. Therefore, it is necessary to limit what has been hindering the sustainable development of cities to overcome them and ensure their future prosperity. Since cities also depend on local and regional material and immaterial cultural resources, this contribution will consider culture-based urban development as a means to promote citizen participation. In the last decade, cultural heritage has become a prominent tool for social and economic improvement. It has also made its way into various European and international policies where cultural heritage is placed at the center of sustainable development. Consequently, interest in cultural heritage can help cities develop by attracting investments and creating job opportunities, as well as by embracing cultural identity, sense of belonging, and social cohesion. However promising culture-based strategies may seem, ensuring their successful implementation for the development of urban contexts is challenging and requires further exploration. For this reason, community participation is considered a promising approach. Local communities can themselves point out the difficulties facing their cities and take part in their problem-solving processes. Nonetheless, collaborating with local communities is problematic due to the digital gap within communities and the struggle to promote cooperation between non-experts with policymakers and other experts. Thus, the objective of this contribution is to enhance the relationship between “communities” and their “cultural heritage” through the exploitation of enabling digital tools as the means for enriching participatory approaches. As affirmation, this contribution will demonstrate the methods and processes through which new forms of community participation are possible and will showcase projects and good practices where these strategies have been effectively realized.
2024
Greening Our Cities: Sustainable Urbanism for a Greener Future
978-3-031-49494-9
digital tools
cities
cultural-based development
community engagement
cultural heritage
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1267344
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