Cultural legacy and urban regeneration: where are the spaces for heritage hybridization through stakeholder engagement

The question of how cities can capitalize on cultural legacy through culture-led urban regeneration processes has not yet been fully answered, although both academics and policy makers recognize that such processes undoubtedly offer opportunities of development. Institutions, city managers and operators have a long way to go before they start to hybridize their unique cultural legacies through the culture, creative, and other, sectors to foster sustainable and innovative urban development and improve urban competitiveness. Place specific conditions affect these processes. This multiple case study analysis focused on three small and medium-sized Italian cities tries to shed some light on the patchy Italian cultural scene. The three cities have all had different experiences of culture-led regeneration projects: in Pompei, public patronage, i.e. unproductive public investment; in Trento, public-driven value creation; in Lecce, the enhancement of socio-economic value and innovation driven by stakeholder engagement. These insights tell us more about how cultural legacy and innovations in urban regeneration processes can be synthesized by finding an appropriate balance between the engagement of public institutions and stakeholders. Heritage hybridization and stakeholder engagement are also levers which can be used to change and manage urban regeneration paths and lead to an extensive, community based hybridization of cultural legacy, while maintaining close links with a city’s identity – past and present. Although exploratory, the paper provides glimpses of possible cultural and creative scenarios from which academics and policy makers can draw inspiration, facilitating experimental labs of creativity and knowledge.