From luxury to prestigious place-making: an overview

Nowadays, a consolidated tradition and some current trends related with a deep change of approach (the switch from exclusiveness to prestige) mark actions and strategies of those stakeholders involved in luxury – as a sector and as a system of values – and, when they interact with space, their role in processes of place making and creation of identity. In this introduction, the editor underlined the reasons for considering luxury as a field of research for urban studies, framing the topic and suggesting some key points to read through and link the different papers. At the same time, he calls for a multi-disciplinary approach to comprehend this topic and its impacts, which involve social, cultural, economic and territorial aspects. The final part is a reflection about the potential role of luxury as a catalyst of change for cities and metropolitan territories, but also a challenge for operational tools and interpretative concepts within the urban and regional planning.