Safety and security: renewed challenges for urban regeneration

The debate regarding security and safety in urban contexts has become progressively more relevant and transversal in planning at European level and constitutes one of the central nodes of multilevel policies and strategies. Recently, the traditional command & control approaches have been frequently integrated with prevention and public engagement strategies, suggesting to reflect on the role of urban regeneration in urban security policies. Five years after the conclusion of the project EU 7FP BESECURE that has built an Inspirational Platform to support decision-making in urban security, we reflect about approaches and results. The paper makes a critical reading of the impacts of an approach including the issue of real or perceived security in a broader process of prevention, regeneration and development. Through the reinterpretation and updating of the case study developed by the CNR unit in Naples (IT) where the issue of security is central both in terms of emergency and innovation, we aim at understanding the effective relationships between security approaches and planning tools.