Abstract

Within critical heritage research, several studies have pointed out a shift from the traditional ‘top-down” notion of heritage to a focus on what communities themselves consider significant to preserve. From this approach, preservation processes are analyzed as arenas of dispute among preservationist groups and others promoting urban regeneration initiatives. Using the case of the textile neighborhood of Bellavista in Tome, and through semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and GIS spatial analysis, our main objective was to analyze how and which social actors become agents of heritagization in a post-industrial neighborhood. Also, we studied the linkages between their agendas and the territorial characteristics of the area. The results present a historic environment which is heterogeneously conceived, and where specific ‘nodal’ spaces condense meaning and agendas, concentrating the disputes between social and entrepreneurial actors.