Urban Regeneration as a Process of Territorial Innovation: Evidence from the Libertà District of Bari (Italy)

Urban regeneration has become a key strategy to address urban decline, infrastructure aging and socio-economic challenges, aiming to enhance quality of life and stimulate local development. Beyond physical renewal, it involves social, cultural and economic dimensions that contribute to the revitalization of communities. Recent literature frames regeneration as an adaptive and multifaceted process, drawing on concepts such as change management, dynamic capabilities and sensemaking to interpret urban transformation as a form of institutional learning. This study adopts a qualitative case study approach focused on the Libertà district in Bari (Italy), using document analysis, field observation, and stakeholder mapping to investigate both tangible and intangible outcomes of regeneration policies. Particular attention is devoted to understanding how socio-institutional and spatial transformations are translated into economic outcomes, using residential property values as an exploratory indicator of economic change. In this regard, variations in residential property values are considered as an exploratory indicator of economic dynamics associated with regeneration, while acknowledging that property price increases do not necessarily correspond to benefits for all community members and may also reflect issues related to affordability and social displacement. The findings suggest that regeneration should be understood as a coordinated and collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders and institutional actors. The analysis highlights the relevance of cultural initiatives, stakeholder interactions and changes in the physical environment as key elements of the transformation process. Furthermore, the study discusses the extent to which changes in the local real estate market may be associated with broader regeneration dynamics, recognizing the limitations of establishing direct causal relationships. Overall, the research proposes an original perspective on urban regeneration as a learning-based and organizational process in which social, institutional, and spatial transformations interact with economic change in complex and context-dependent ways.