Small towns and valorization strategies

The globalization processes promote the development of a society characterized by housing needs and life rhythms different from the past, whose times and distances contract in favor of a faster circulation of information, people and goods. If it favors, on the one hand, the economic growth of the cities, on the other hand it weakens small towns, depopulating them and consequently impoverishing them in their heritage of material and immaterial identity. Starting from reflections on the specific characteristics of the small town, in light of the different definitions that are recognized in the literature, the study intends to provide a general framework on the actions in progress, in Italy and in Europe, for the revival of these communities. With a double perspective: to prepare a panel of indicators useful for expressing the social, economic, environmental and historical-architectural values of the small urban core; therefore to formalize a multi-criteria analysis model able to support the public decision-maker in the implementation of valid strategies for its recovery and valorization.