The Challenge of Urban Sustainability in Seaside Cities Between Unlimited Growth and Serene Degrowth

Seaside cities are a privileged laboratory to wonder about the fate of the modern metropolis and identify innovate development models. The crisis of the capitalistic system raises the question: Should we accept the system's constitutional limits and indulge its degrowth (Latouche), or try to face these limits to seek new end markets for an economy which seems to be literally plodding towards the post-industrial era? In an interdisciplinary approach which uses urban and philosophical contributions, the paper proposes to go back looking at the sea as a horizon still full of opportunities and considering the cities rising on the coast as a possible epicentre of an innovative renewal movement. Taking into account such a complex perspective, we want to analyse urban development models which, initially applied to seaside neighbourhood, are able to spread to the rest of the city and that, even considering the current growth demand, are also able not to satisfy the risk factors by it implied.