Culture, Heritage, Identity and Food. A Methodological Approach

For the last few years, more than half the world’s population has lived in cities; a turning point in society has been reached and humanity has changed its ancestral way of living. This book examines and considers these epochal social, cultural and economic changes and outlines a cognitive framework through which the cities, using a widely tested methodology, can discover the cultural and gastronomic heritage of their own territories as trajectories for a creative future. The collection, survey and communication of the cultural data belonging to the order of orality can be a precious capital of knowledge, a resource of memory, of identity and of heritage for the present which, now as never before, feels the need to digitally connect with its analogical past. The aim of the study was to supply theoretical and practical solutions for the capitalisation and valorisation of the gastronomic cultures, in various geographical and cultural contexts. Thanks to the practical, applicative, experimental nature of the survey model proposed, the aim is to provide an agenda through which other cities in Europe and throughout the world, can set up virtuous processes of capitalisation and valorisation of their gastronomic resources, in a profitable dialogue between rural and urban dimensions.