The valorization of cultural heritage for regional development (“Conservation 3.0”) has been a widely used concept in the last decade. Heritage institutions and the European Union have advocated and fostered the view of cultural heritage as a place-based development potential. Therefore, this article investigates the impacts of such approaches in the context of sustainable development. It does so with a specific focus on more peripheral, (old) industrial regions in Central Europe, where industrial heritage and industrial tourism play an important role. Based on this background, this article highlights the difficulties of establishing a tourism product based on industry-related features. The product mainly serves a niche market, thereby not helping to overcome structural disadvantages of peripheral regions. The economic impacts of industrial heritage tourism on the transition towards a more sustainable regional development are rather low. Nevertheless, the case study highlights the social benefits that industry-related tourism yields in regions in transformation, forming an important pre-condition for any future development. However, ecological aspects are not widely addressed in heritage tourism in this region. Policy-wise, stakeholders in peripheral regions should be more aware of the different limits and opportunities cultural heritage utilizations can bring in terms of achieving a more sustainable regional development.

So far, ‘Industrial Culture’ as a term has been widely used as a synonym for industrial heritage. Only recently, a re-interpretation of industrial culture has been discussed, which goes beyond heritage issues by including contemporary or upcoming cultural and creative resources, addressing directly the future development opportunities of regions. Whilst some aspects of this conceptual framework of industrial culture are already applied in some places, there is no comprehensive outline available yet. In the academic field so far no coherent concept can be found. The aim of this thematic issue is to foster a discussion on the state-of-the-art regarding the conceptualisation of industrial culture. This thematic issue has gathered contributions that respond to the following questions: the different understandings of the concept of industrial culture; the role of industrial culture in the context of a post-industrial society and a knowledge-based economy; the connection between industrial culture, regional development and regional identity, as well as the inter-linkages between traditional industrial sectors and creative industries. The contributions in this issue focus strongly on the connection between the industrial past, present and future, bringing together different academic view points on the topic. The issue maps out current research topics and poses new questions on dealing with the wide topic of industrial culture.

The paper discusses remediation and regeneration processes in former mining regions in Eastern Germany. Research focuses on the multi-level governance system in which the environmental rehabilitation processes were set in. The paper discusses certain difficulties of the system, which can be characterized as problems of interplay, fit, scale and path dependency (Young). Results highlight the importance of enhancing regional capacities, in order to allow actors in former mining regions to find appropriate rehabilitation solutions and to connect them with new development approaches

In recent decades, manufacturing industries in Europe have undergone a deep transformation due to global market competition, automation, and adaptation to globalized production patterns. The impact of deindustrialization and regional restructuring has been particularly strong on regions outside of metropolitan areas, which may be locked in their specific development path and cannot benefit from agglomeration effects. However, scholars are increasingly shifting their attention to processes of regional renewal, emphasizing the strengths and potentials of such regions. Such potentials holds the concept of Industrial Culture which is defined as a particular cultural setting made up of certain intangible assets, such as skills, attitudes, traditions, tangible monuments, and artefacts. Based on the case study of the district of Zwickau, the authors identify three dimensions of Industrial Culture. These cultural, social, and economic aspects can be underscored by different—albeit often overlapping—actions, opening up new development options for the region if embedded in a broad network of regional actors. Industrial Culture can thus be perceived as a strategic concept to form a coherent approach of regional development by integrating various existing activities in a region.

This article discusses the character of post-mining potentials and their role in regional development in a German and Slovenian mining region. The many possible uses often include renewable energies (biomass, geothermal energy), or tourism (museums). Discussing two case study regions, this article presents similarities and differences in approaches towards the utilisation of potentials, and compares factors that influence utilisation with reference to national framework conditions. The text argues that in the context of structural change and mine closures, the use of post-mining potentials, such as post-mining landscapes, infrastructures and traditions, can be a way to explore new development options for affected regions.