Cultural Heritage and the Commons. Sharing the care of the built environment to improve social cohesion and local community identity

The European Community proposes a community-based approach to protect and manage cultural heritage and considers heritage buildings as a strategic resource. Heritage is characterised by shared values recognised by the community and capable of promoting socio-economic development. Therefore, cultural heritage can be considered as a common good and requires the development of effective participatory management models. The community can be involved in all phases of the process, for the care of urban public spaces and abandoned buildings as shared resources, through a participatory administration, able to support inclusive policies. The research analyses several approaches to involve citizens in the process of regeneration and management of cultural heritage, as common good, to find factors influencing their effectiveness. The analysis of case studies allows to identify the roles of the actors involved and the criteria for conservation and enhancement of tangible and intangible heritage. Such an investigation allows to develop strategies to activate regenerative processes for urban public spaces, based on the principle of horizontal subsidiarity.