Cultural Landscape and Communities: Discovering Heritage of Italian Inner Areas Through Collaborative Approaches

With reference to the Faro Convention, nowadays the value of cultural heritage is no longer attributable only to the presence of valuable assets in a given territory, but to the relationships established between those assets and local communities and namely to the value that the latter attribute to them. The recognition of such values takes on a strategic role in preserving local identities and increasing the sense of belonging of communities to places, representing itself a key factor for understanding, protecting and enhancing cultural landscapes. In inner areas, despite the widespread presence of a significant material and immaterial cultural heritage, the abandonment processes are determining a progressive loss of relationships between communities and heritage, essential to preserve the identity of such territories and guarantee their future. The contribution illustrates the first results of a research path, still in progress, based on an interdisciplinary and participatory approach. The research path has been developed with reference to the Municipality of Guardia Sanframondi, part of the Tammaro-Titerno inner area in the Campania Region (South Italy). The main goal of the research is to build a participatory process aimed at recognizing and representing the values that local community attributes to local heritage to counteract the progressive loss of memories and outline strategies for revitalizing local cultural landscape.