Title: Creativity as a strategy to recover: learning from Scampia

Authors: Maria Federica Palestino

Addresses: Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Naples Federico II, Via Forno Vecchio 36, 80134 Naples, Italy

Abstract: Fifteen years ago a coalition between private and public actors from Naples produced a creative formula to promote the city, supporting the regeneration of the historical centre with a sophisticated socio-cultural approach. After a long period of urban decay, the Neapolitan formula started working again in 2005 but, this time it was applied in a strongly stigmatised suburb. Despite a few differences between the first and the second application, some elements of the strategy seem to remain quite similar, giving us the possibility to state that the Neapolitan way of regeneration consists of what I define site advocacy. Site advocacy is a sort of remedy to make a place overcome a crisis based on a particular interpretive sensitivity to discover the potentials of a place investing on local human resources without forgetting the territorial remit and the relation between soft policies and spatial planning.

Keywords: urban regeneration; suburbs; soft policy; site advocacy; power of place; creativity; cultural policy; Naples; Scampia; Arrevuoto; urban development; human resources; spatial planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2009.032781

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2009 Vol.12 No.2/3/4, pp.264 - 274

Published online: 21 Apr 2010 *

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