Italian historic centers and marginality: for a regeneration strategy of the contemporary historic territory

Abstract

The study developed by Ancsa* and Cresme** shows the current state of the Italian historic centers from the economic and demographic point of view, which is the starting point of the paper in reflecting on the Italian urban policies for the enhancement and preservation of the contemporary historic territory. Moreover, the paper aims to deeper investigate the phenomenon of marginality as arising from the application of the concept of "periphery" to historic centers. Starting from the analytical-interpretative methodology used in the Ancsa-Cresme 2017 report, our study follows an inductive method based on demographic, social and economic survey trends in the provincial capital cities. Although in a quantitative way, this approach reflects the trend Italian cities are going through, and is useful to outline the common characteristics of the marginality phenomenon of some historic centers. This general investigation represents the reference framework for the in-depth and comparative analysis of the case studies useful to understand the specific phenomena that are characterizing historic centers, as well as of the policies, strategies and planning outcomes for their regeneration. Due to their structure and morphology, historic centers are living and unique organisms, and it is thus difficult to plan a predefined and standardized urban policy framework. That is why, starting from a general framework, we deepen some case studies to outline the policies suitable for similar urban contexts.