Looking for a Balance Between Memories, Patrimonialization, and Tourism: Sustainable Approaches to Industrial Heritage Regeneration in Northwestern Italy

Carlo Angelo Maria Chiodi, Rossella De Lucia, Carlo Giunchi and Paolo Molinari ()
Additional contact information
Carlo Angelo Maria Chiodi: Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy
Rossella De Lucia: Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy
Carlo Giunchi: DISFOR-Department of Education Sciences, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso A. Podestà 2, 16121 Genova, Italy
Paolo Molinari: Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milano, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-32

Abstract: Historically renowned for its industrialization, Northwestern Italy is undergoing significant economic transformations after the late 20th century deindustrialization, whose profound impacts present challenges for the development of sustainable approaches to the territory’s urban and rural memoryscapes revitalization. This paper critically analyzes three cases in Ponte Lambro, Sesto San Giovanni, and Genoa, whose industrial histories allow for studying how industrial heritage-making projects can promote socioeconomic opportunities and tourism, balancing community well-being, conservation needs, and social inclusion. The study focuses on what heritage is meant to achieve and how the past and its ties are retroactively “constructed” more than on the material constitution of heritage, examining the initiatives’ contribution to long-term social, cultural, and environmental sustainability. It also applies the analytical method proposed by Muzaini and Minca (2018) to evaluate the inhabitants’ involvement in the heritage-making process. Findings suggest heritage valorization contributes to the creation of complex collective identities and territorial regeneration, although management contradictions and challenges emerge, such as the absence of an integrated and participatory approach. This shows the complexity of heritage-making processes, fluctuating between new meanings, the risk of marginalizing relevant aspects of local memory, the need for sustainable preservation, and the challenges of its touristic and economic consumption.

Keywords: industrial heritage; sustainable tourism; sustainable development; deindustrialized regions; regeneration; memoryscapes; local communities; Northwestern Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/905/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/905/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:905-:d:1574246

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().