Using Participatory Processes with Young People for the Definition of Cultural Heritage: A Case Study of Genoa

Yi Fu Tuan’s (2008) humanistic geography approach, based on the importance of people’s perceptions, creativity, and personal beliefs, as well as on the influence of experience in developing attitudes towards places, is the main source of inspiration for the project introduced here. According to this approach, both the geographical and the behavioural environment (Lacoste, 1976) are to be considered separately: such a separation of spatial and emotional aspects, as well as the fact that we have to start from people’s perceptions, makes it clear that future citizens should become protagonists of the process of recognising territorial objects. Such a process overcomes the “objectively recognisable heritage” construct and creates a new representation of identity. In other words, the static rules that define accessibility in the top-down approach (“this is the monument, you have to visit it”) are reversed into a bottom-up approach where students participate together in what truly matters in their region; in doing so, they also become genuine promoters for local development (Costa 2005; Costa 2008).