The Role of Cultural Heritage in Promoting Socio-Economic Development: An Analysis on Emerging Countries

Abstract

The enhancement of cultural heritage through new forms of dialogue with the territorial communities and the so-called “heritage communities” of which such heritage is an expression, is becoming an increasingly important vehicle for the economic and social development, especially in emerging countries. The places that express the history, culture and values ​​of the human collectives can become, in this way, laboratories in which the knowledge and the traditions are reinterpreted in a continuous dialogue. Of such valorization and of such dialogue, the emerging countries can benefit in view of a profitable local development that can also propose diversified and seasonally adjusted tourism routes, able to bring constant tourist flows, with positive economic and social consequences. In light of these considerations, the paper aims to explore the different paths through which, in emerging countries, it is possible to create new models of development also through innovative ways of dialogue with the so-called “patrimonial communities”. Central will be a reflection on how the most recent international patterns to promote social and economic development can be “translated” and adapted to specific developing geographic and sectoral contexts.