Atlas menor de descampados: Hacia una lectura patrimonial de los vacíos urbanos de Alicante
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article offers a critical reading of urban heritage through the study of wastelands in Alicante, understood as minor, bastard and unproductive territories that actively shape the urban imaginary. Against the traditional heritage logic based on monumentality, utility or aesthetic value, it advocates a minor heritage that emerges from the city’s margins, where ruins, informal practices, biodiversity and non-normative uses coexist. Through the analysis of the Lagunas de Rabasa —an abandoned 400-hectare site reclaimed by spontaneous renaturalisation after decades of industrial extraction— the article highlights the political, ecological and symbolic potential of these urban voids. The research combines fieldwork, cartographic analysis, technical data and a psychogeographic perspective to propose a Minor Atlas of Wastelands as a critical archive. Far from being mere residues of failed planning, these spaces operate as autonomous zones and urban laboratories, where informality and affect generate new ways of inhabiting the city. The article argues for their recognition as legitimate heritage, not for their usefulness, but for their cultural, social and political capacity.
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214825057
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