Paesaggi culturali: conoscenza, sostenibilità, partecipazione.

In recent years, archaeological research has enormously expanded its horizons, creating Integrated Systems of Knowledge which, from a global perspective, have produced big changes in methods and strategies. This evolution has supported the confrontation with the political, social and economic dimension of the present around the topics of protection, planning and enhancement, sustainability and quality of life in the urban peripheries and in the rural world. Especially in inland areas, wide territories characterized by peculiar ecological and social forms are threatened by deconstructive dynamics, which cause loss of biodiversity, degradation of human landscapes and loss of knowledge. To understand the evolution of landscapes it is necessary to recognize its peculiarities, the memory of the places, the phenomena of degradation and the mutations that have occurred over time to try to define and design new forms of management and enhancement: the common goal is the survival of the identity through the transformation of marginal landscapes into a “fulcrum” for the communities. The focus shifts from cultural heritage to people, their relationship with the surrounding environment and their participation in the process of identifying cultural values, through the recognition, in the tangible and intangible heritage, of a sustainable development resource. The creation of a transdiciplinary space of interaction makes it possible to rethink the results of research to develop scientific, economic and touristic models in a broad sense, useful for activating processes of growth and integrated development of internal territories. In line with the principles of the Council of Europe Convention on the value of Cultural Heritage for Society, it is considered essential to strengthen, through suitable public / private R&D strategies, the relationship between environment, communities and their capacity to actively select the cultural essence of the territory, so as to be able to effectively manage the resources useful for development and self-preservation.