Health and well-being through cultural heritage enhancement strategies. cultural welfare and integrated sustainability for fostering healthy lifestyles

Abstract

In recent years, literature on studies on urban features and living conditions of cities related to health and well-being, has shown growing attention to the implications that the cultural dimension has or can have in such processes. The attention concerns the cultural expression understood as a set of environmental and social features, that is, a set of characteristics associated with a specific place, urban or territorial, of human and social development. Today, the relationship between culture and health, obtains an important role. Indeed, a considerable interest growth in sector studies, which unequivocally demonstrate how the intelligent use of free time is associated to an extension of life expectancy and a reduction of some pathologies. The culture/cultural activity that is generally considered as an entertainment, assumes a precise value, proving to be an important tool for preventing cognitive decline, mitigating stress conditions and contributing to general well-being. The paper focuses on these topics and specifically on the implications and on relationships between the preservation of cultural heritage and the improvement of individual’s lives and the environment, describing a case study on an ongoing experimentation, in a municipality of the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria.