Challenging spaces and formats of culture in the city: highlights on the future of cultural heritage management

This paper focuses upon the relationship between culture and society in the urban environment. The first section introduces the social and urban changes of our time from a critical theory perspective, integrating socioeconomic and urban studies: what emerges the fading of social boundaries and the emersion of new political claims arising from cultural instances; the second section focuses on the discrepancies between such changes and the cultural offer, still anchored to rigid heritage preservation, never meeting new forms of cultural expression. This stern dichotomy needs to be faced through a paradigm shift, which is dealt with in the third section: some best practices across Europe are selected, highlighting the need to focus on cross-sector partnerships, vertical integration, and a public support aimed at favouring the diffusion of culture on multiple social layers. The map of culture is eventually redesigned, and new creative encounters are made by challenging the use of space in the urban scenario.