Culture, Heritage and Territorial Identities for Urban Development

Dear Colleagues,

The economic globalization of the recent decades has generated faster rhythms in cities’ adaptation to novelty and consequently triggered customed urban restructuring and regeneration policies and practices. From the 1970s onwards, towns and cities have experienced deindustrialization processes, while seeing a gradual growth of tertiarization and diversification of services, including cultural ones. Until then, culture in relation to cities’ development was important, especially from a historical perspective, in terms of its influence on urban forms and characteristics. With more accelerated socioeconomic dynamics, the role of culture in urban development has grown progressively. With the different, both positive and negative, effects introduced by new cultural interpretations of cities (e.g., culture in public spaces, cultural and creative industries, culture as marketing tools, cultural commodification, etc.), the concept of culture has become increasingly associated with urban image and identity. In finding solutions within regeneration processes, policies often rely on tools from the cultural and creative fields. Additionally, built material and immaterial heritage can have significant roles: e.g., converting heritage sites and buildings through cultural projects or new functions, or capitalizing on specific traditions and place memory for local identity and place attachment. 

This Special Issue focuses on cultural approaches in connection with urban development and aims for contributions from various research fields. The volume invites researchers and academics worldwide to publish their original research articles on the following themes, but not limited to these:

- Cultural activities and their role in urban development;
- Cities (re)constructing their identity, relying mainly on culture and heritage;
- Culture as a relevant component of current spatial planning policies;
- Urban strategies, attracting creative people;
- Urban image, heritage and culture;
- Culture, local memory and local identities;
- Heritage and industrial culture;
- Subcultures within cities and processes of urban change.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories (article/review/conceptual paper) of papers for the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Dr. Andreea-Loreta Cercleux
Mr. Jörn Harfst
Dr. Oana-Ramona Ilovan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• territorial identity construction processes
• cultural and creative industries
• urban regeneration
• innovation
• representations
• subcultures
• policy and planning
• participatory approaches