- The Way towards the Expression of the own Identity    340 kb by    Blanco, María Beatriz & Vicario, Juan José | mariabblanco@gmail.com    Short Outline This paper deals with a city’s authentic personality and with how the city can generate an expression of cultural identity. More importantly, how can urbanism, patrimonial architecture and marketing work together in partnership? Abstract Today’s cities suffer from numerous and consecutive transformations. Different causes as migration processes, changing fashions and their fast broadcasting by world’s media and, multinational companies that are custom exporters, produce a trans-culturazition phenomena that is altering the way in which cities express themselves and neutralizing their image and expression. What distinguish a city is its cultural heritage and local way of life, in opposition to the uniformity of a global culture. Culture arises in the creative environment that composed city and urban life. Culture, at the same time, is a strategic resource for local development. Investment is seduced by culture as culture generates added value to the place where it grows and put on energy in the innovation of the economic sector. Culture joins people. Culture is what distinguishes one place to another giving people their own identity. It also defines the city’s authentic image of trademark and this is a key element for the continued growth of a city in a world’s global scenery. If past and tradition aren’t capable of having an innovative process, the city stops its development. City planners must have the ability to work in a global environment, preserving the singularity of local life. They should integrate both tradition and innovation. Local/global, Tradition/innovation, Space/time. This crossing of vectors shows the structure where city planners can build a development strategy. A city is a community of interests with tensions and contradictions. This is the reason why a city differs from an amusement park designed only for the visitor’s satisfaction. The authenticity of a city is the result of its patrimony’s liveliness. Cities should be alive, and everything that is alive, feeds, grows, fortifies, and renews itself. A city must answer the citizen’s matters and adapt itself to the new situations, supporting its genetic line, without neglecting Human Rights that are always above Local Rules. Keywords expression of the cultural identity Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper