Rethinking cultural heritage

Heritage is an essential part of human culture and its conservation matters. This argument has been acknowledged in the academia for many years. However, the increasing number of listed heritage sites, combined with a decrease of public funds, highlights the necessity to find sustainable management practices for heritage. So far, the discussion on heritage management is not quite satisfactory. Too often the economic perspective differs from the one of historians, archeologists, art historians and all those people involved in heritage conservation; it seems difficult to find a balance among the many values related to heritage. In this context, adaptive reuse seems a valuable and sustainable strategy able to give new use to heritage while conserving its cultural value. Yet, in order to do so, it should consider not only economic returns but also heritage intrinsic values. This research introduces three specific cultural heritage sites in which adaptive reuse was done through cultural or creative projects. By means of a qualitative research, this study aims to understand which values push managers of cultural and creative projects to start their activity inside cultural heritage sites and how these values are realized. The aim is to understand if creative and cultural entrepreneurs can have a role in heritage regeneration and to what extent the analyzed projects are sustainable both from an economic and social perspective. Through a value based approach, this study concludes that rethinking heritage with cultural and creative projects can be a valuable way to respect and, in some cases, enhance heritage cultural capital. It also looks at heritage social sustainability as a significant factor for social, societal and cultural development for people involved in the reuse process.