Nowadays, cultural heritage is more than ever linked to the present. It links us to our cultural past through the conscious act of preserving and bequeathing to future generations, turning society into its custodian. The appreciation of cultural heritage happens not only because of its communicative power, but also because of its economic power, through sustainable development and the promotion of creative industries. This paper presents SILKNOW, an EU-H2002 funded project and its application to cultural heritage, as well as to creative industries and design innovation. To this end, it presents the use of image recognition tools applied to cultural heritage, through the interoperability of data in the open-access registers of silk museums and its presentation, analysis and creative process carried out by the design students of EASD Valencia as a case study, in the branches of jewellery and fashion project, inspired by the heritage of silk.

By definition, sustainable development includes environmental, economic and social dimensions. Scholars have paid little attention to the latter, although greater interest has been seen in recent years due to the growing strength of the idea that development without equity is not development. Within this context, moreover, urban spaces present complex structures that make it difficult to address sustainable development goals without adequate territorial planning. The aims of the present article are twofold: to expound a conceptual line of thinking to define the social dimension of sustainability—while aware that it is inseparable from the other two—and to propose a simple measurement method based on the accessibility of public services. This method uses time-distance as the measure through which to understand socio-spatial equity. It is based on using GIS tools for a case study—in this case, the city of Valencia—and on the concept of spatial equity as the basis of social sustainability.

This paper presents a comprehensive view of the empirical research findings concerning rurban relationships in different European countries (Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain), through two types of rurban territories: those that are placed close to (or included in) a metropolitan area and those that are close to (and influenced by) an important tourist area or place. Its main aim is to show the diversity of European experiences with regard to urban pressure in this type of areas, highlighting the socio-economic and institutional contexts in explaining similarities and differences between five countries. The results will review the various meanings of ‘rural’ and ‘rurality’ in different European contexts and how the study areas combine the characteristics of a rural and an urban area. Moreover, we will see that urban pressure is not perceived as a negative process by many but, rather, the opposite. Further, the multi-functionality of rural areas has often implied an excessive focus on new external urban demands in detriment of enhancing other traditional functions. Given these situations, institutions do not always provide efficient responses to changing rurban areas.

Desde finales de los años 80 del pasado siglo, las ciudades europeas están desarrollando políticas de gestión urbana en la línea de lo que se ha venido en denominar city-marketing, urban-branding, o urbanismo neoliberal. El objetivo de estas políticas es posicionar a la ciudad en el contexto internacional potenciando su singularidad, para lo cual la principal estrategia ha sido la construcción de mega-edificios y la organización de eventos con impacto en los medios de comunicación globales. El aumento de la atractividad turística en las ciudades es utilizado como un indicador de éxito de dichas políticas. La ciudad de Valencia no ha sido ajena a este tipo de estrategias. El presente artículo realiza un análisis de las consecuencias que la política urbana neoliberal ha tenido en el turismo de la ciudad de Valencia, en especial en lo que se refiere a su imagen de marca y a la vinculación del mismo con la oferta cultural de la ciudad.

Society nowadays makes intensive use of time and extensive use of space. This has implications for spatial planning of facilities and services since it is now essential to look at personal accessibility (in terms of time and choice) and not just physical distance. Over and above spatial accessibility (distance or cost of travel to the facility or service), location models based on space-time accessibility also consider personal accessibility with respect to the time available to access a facility or service. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the practical usefulness of the theoretical approach grounded in the Geography of Time in enhancing personal accessibility to facilities and services which are provided in a specific space and at a specific time and have fixed start and end times, as is the case with schools. To this end, an ad hoc tool was developed to generate a number of scenarios simulating actual and hypothetical conditions for space-time accessibility to schools in the city of Valencia. The results showed how studying space-time accessibility may be extremely useful in drawing up proposals designed to increase personal accessibility to core services such as education and thereby helping to improve work-life balance.

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar los resultados de un análisis y cartografía de las iniciativas de innovación social que han surgido en la ciudad de Valencia en los últimos años. Mediante trabajo de campo y técnicas fundamentalmente cualitativas (FocusGroup, entrevistas, cuestionarios a informadores cualificados), se han recopilado y analizado las iniciativas de este tipo que se encuentran actualmente activas, analizando su tipología, cronología y localización geográfica, con el fin de determinar las variables que han condicionado su nacimiento y, en particular, su posible vinculación con las características de los barrios en que se han originado (problemática social, estructura sociodemográfica, tradición participativa, redes y capital social existente, etc.). Los resultados muestran la gran diversidad temática existente, así como su vinculación con las demandas percibidas por la población y su vinculación a barrios con población joven y áreas consolidadas con tradición participativa, como Ciutat Vella, Benimaclet y Marítim.