摘要：Abstract The metropolitan dimension is an important resource to improve the competitiveness of the territories in economic terms and the quality of urban life in social and environmental terms. In Italy this topic is long overdue and the Law n. 56/2014 dealing with metropolitan cities proved to be ineffective. Particularly, these cities does not seem to have a real metropolitan identity. The best results seem to have been achieved in those contexts where there was already an awareness, or even a real metropolitan identity, and where communities have been involved in processes of information, consciousness and participation. Naples is one of the major European metropolitan cities, the third in Italy, and it is a potential laboratory for an innovative process in building a metropolitan identity based on culture, integration, enhancement of human capital, with particular attention to the sea resource. In this context, in order to recognize into this new metropolitan identity and to accept it, it is possible to undertake collaborative processes and operate territory transformations through more effective collaborative strategies among institutions, stakeholders and citizens.
