Is Cultural Heritage a Trigger for Civic Wealth Creation? Some Methodological Issues

Short Abstract This paper addresses the topic of the regeneration of historic villages and small towns. It is part of an ongoing research project questioning if and how cultural heritage can be a trigger for civic wealth creation. Building on the previous literature on urban regeneration, we deem that in such contexts the mobilisation of cultural resources could be pivotal for the development of a ‘culture-based economy’. Meanwhile, putting the community at the centre is fundamental to maintaining the vibrancy of a local area and implementing regeneration projects based on CH. We deem a promising solution for historic towns’ resilience and development is to activate processes of CWC, i.e., the creation of social, economic and communal endowments that benefit local communities and allow these communities to be self-sufficient, therefore, generating positive societal change and sustainable impact. In an attempt to question if and how CH can be a trigger for Civic Wealth Creation in small historical towns, our paper contributes to contextualising the CWC framework proposed by Lumpkin and Bacq in 2019 by identifying other key stakeholder categories and providing evidence and rationale for their inclusions. Extended Abstract Background and aim of the paper. Urban regeneration rests on an integrated and comprehensive vision aimed at solving urban problems and promoting the development of the concerned communities (Roberts, 2000; La Rosa et al., 2017). Drawing from multidisciplinary research fields, urban regeneration is a broad practice applied to both degraded districts and buildings (Jung et al., 2015) and historical cities that, although rich in cultural heritage, lack of social and economic opportunities and risk desertification of their historical centres (Stolarick and Florida, 2006; Cooke and Lazzeretti, 2008; Ertan and Eğercioğlu). Therefore, reinventing the way spaces can be exploited, building on culture to breathe new life into historic centres is a key challenge, as well as resting on local knowledge (heritage, past knowledge, cultural legacy) and capabilities to generate new opportunities and civic wealth (Lumpkin and Bacq, 2019, Rock H2020 project). However, the mechanisms underpinning the process to activate effective and sustainable urban regeneration have not been investigated under a knowledge management perspective with a few rare exceptions (Dameri & Demartini, 2020). To this end, this paper aims to understand factors and processes that leverage from intangible and tangible cultural heritage (i.e., local know-how, tacit and codified knowledge linked to local crafts and traditions; arts masterpieces and cultural heritage assets) to sustain innovation and create social, cultural and economic wealth. Namely, it questions: How can a local administration leverage a World Heritage site to foster the regeneration of the local economy and bring positive societal change? Research Method. The paper adopts a qualitative approach. It focuses on the case of Urbino, a Unesco world heritage site affected by a socio-economic decline because citizens and businesses increasingly move to nearby cities where they find jobs and a better quality of life. Preserving the vibrancy and the well-being of the community represents a challenge for the local government, which launched a series of initiative under the project named “Urbino per Bene”. The paper relies on abductive approach, which is a form of logical inference that begins with a series of observations to then find out explanations (Dubois & Gadde, 2002) of actions and outcomes obtained through a civic initiative known as “the Relaunch of the Data space”. The paper reconstructs the premises that activated the community process devoted to create civic wealth putting together different visions and theoretical perspectives on urban regeneration. Information on the case study was obtained from primary and secondary sources: unstructured interviews addressed to key actors of the project, information grasped from the analysis of public documents, such as the minutes of City council periodical meetings, municipality website, public discussions (press releases and social media), and the city strategic plan. Data have been examined and coded using NVivo (Miles et al., 2013) to imbue an inductive study with ‘‘qualitative rigor’’ while still retaining the creative and revelatory potential for generating new concepts and ideas (Gioia et al., 2012). Findings and implications. The case study analysed revealed that culture and artistic knowledge and capabilities tied to the tradition of a city rich in heritage (Urbino is an UNESCO site) can be the lever of innovation and boost civic wealth. Empirical data allowed to identify the main challenges that a city manager has to face: attract talent, create jobs and trigger the spur of new ventures, establish spaces for artists and cultural activities, preserve and promote local know-how, develop a strategy to attract SMEs belonging to the cultural and creative sector. Moreover, it shows that involving multiple stakeholders in societal change initiatives is a key point and calls for managing assets through public-private cooperation to reconcile different (and sometimes conflicting) interests into a shared vision (Biondi et al., 2020; Dameri & Moggi, 2019). The analysis also identifies the missing elements that hindered the progressive exploitation of the city potential related to cultural heritage (i.e., absence of a financing ecosystem available for the creative and cultural sector, scarcity of resources).