ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the relevance of the analysis of the social, cultural and economic structures as a basis to understand the territory where the activity of the city takes place. It examines the citizen participation as a strategic axis of the work methodology, which is useful to build democratic and active cities and understand the needs and perceptions of people who inhabit the territory. The Mediterranean can be considered time and again a complex crossroads of people, cultures and events. The Mediterranean culture is the common denominator of a wide space of local and global interrelationships where the city becomes the meeting point historically approached by the sea. Mediterranean cities often underwent accelerated urban development, frequently due to complex migratory movements, with the consequent creation of tensions in the territory and the application of unsustainable development models.
