Building on decay: urban regeneration and social entrepreneurship in Italy through culture and the arts

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on urban regeneration practices based on adaptive reuse projects in culture and the arts, where new forms of social entrepreneurship emerge. Through in-depth qualitative research, we develop three case studies in three different urban contexts in Italy: Turin, a large and highly industrialised city in one of the country's north-west regions; Terni, a medium-sized city in central Italy; and Favara, a small town in the province of Agrigento on the island of Sicily. Building on the case studies, we outline a possible taxonomy of urban remains, entrepreneurship, and adaptive reuse models, reflecting on the role of social entrepreneurship and its peculiar governance and business models, the specific features of adaptive reuse and urban regeneration processes, and the relationship between art and urban regeneration. Some closing remarks focus on how social entrepreneurship in the cultural field challenges both scholars and decision-makers.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban regeneration
• adaptive reuse
• social entrepreneurship
• art
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For an extended overview, see www.riusiamolitalia.it (last access: 6/12/21)

2 The number of field visits varied according to the complexity of the case. We spent two days in Favara and Terni, and made 18 part-time visits to Turin. Each interview at the three sites was recorded and transcribed by the authors.

3 https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/01/23/news/favara_crollo-2047962/ (last access: May 2021).