Paper Short Abstract:

The aim of this contribution is to investigate the transformations of urban imaginaries within the late-industrial landscape and the narratives of ruins and places that are generated in the memory of the community: the case of Manfredonia, an Adriatic coastal city in Puglia (Southern Italy).

Paper Abstract:

The contribution starts from the research activity which aims to investigate the transformations of urban imaginaries within the late-industrial landscape and the narratives of ruins and places that are generated in the memory of the community, with focus on the dimension of everyday living in the context of Manfredonia, an Adriatic coastal town in Puglia (Southern Italy).

The legacy of the industrial era has made Manfredonia a sort of company town, constantly balanced between the memory of the impact of the chemical industry on the territory and the imagination of a city that observes the maritime space with the aim of regenerating the urban context in the perspective of a sustainable future. From the perspective of a researcher who in walking through the city stands between towers that signal the presence of industry and towers that signal the presence of sea and land, the contribution explores the theme of urban regeneration of the post-industrial landscape in terms of the social construction of the spaces from the point of view of the inhabitants and from the point of view of the coastline as a place where to perceive and understand the social components that constitute Manfredonia. The aim is to demonstrate how much the city cannot be reduced within predefined spatial models, but must be understood as a local declination of specific cultural processes, an expression of a living that is not a simple being in the city, but is a constant redefinition of the relationship between place and individuals.