Retail Activities as Regeneration Opportunities: The Case of Naples (Italy) Amid Genius Loci and Global Trends

Squares, commercial streets, market places as well as traditional retail and art-and-crafts areas can be considered the core of the European city. The globalization trends and the social, economic and demographic crisis has affected the capacity of attraction of local small retailers by producing aggressive strategies such as suburban shopping centres, arcades or precinct, forming a complex of shops, movie theatres, restaurants and food courts with interconnecting walkways. This paper suggests that, by activating the existing local cultural and socio-economic capital, it is possible to support a regeneration process based on an integrated approach to retail activities and on new strategies of public-private partnerships place-based. By focussing on the experiences of the "natural malls" (Centri Commerciali Naturali) established in Italy by law as possible strategy for enhancing vibrant historical centres, as well as on the suburban "artificial malls", the ongoing research is oriented to explore potentiality and the criticism of an integrated approach to retail as engine for the redevelopment and regeneration of the inner city abandoned retail areas. In dealing with this topic, the experience developed in Campania (Southern Italy) will be analysed.