Mediação cultural e comunicação na economia simbólica do centro histórico de Coimbra

This work aims to reflect on practices of mediation and communication in the context of the cultural sustainability of Coimbra historic downtown. In recent years the concept of cultural mediation has being widely used to relate the urban heritage to identity and citizenship. At the same time, the communicational approach to heritage status acquisition wins new features connecting the heritage resources fostered in the interaction with the public. Based on a research still ongoing, we intend to problematize the roles of these two dynamics, considering that heritage process is a continuous progression in safeguarding, dissemination and access to cultural assets in the flow of the symbolic economy