Tourism and cultural heritage in the urban transformation of Naples

The paper deals with culturally based development strategies and practices, using Naples as a case study. The city has been affected in recent years by intense and rapid processes of touristification that have generated many negative externalities. At the same time new and interesting community-driven practices were launched in some disadvantaged urban areas to promote their tourist-cultural enhancement. The work investigates some of these bottom-up experiences, with the aim of evaluating whether, and to what extent, these initiatives can generate territorial welfare, combining economic development with social identity and practices by urban dwellers.