Small towns are continuously overlooked and under-researched, although they represent a type of urban settlement present in large numbers, especially in Europe. Questions regarding the resilience of small towns are an important issue acknowledged in the EU policy of regional development. This volume is written by an international and interdisciplinary team of scholars who are convinced about the importance of small towns as a research topic. It looks at how towns approach heritage, its instrumental use and its commodification in support of its survival, asking about towns' strategies to achieve resilience to external pressure. The chapters present cases from Europe and beyond. It represents various types of situations and approaches of urban communities, but it is not limited to success stories. The authors deal with places that are undervalued, not fully exploited or in danger because of lack of appreciation. They explore a wide range of strategies in the fields of revitalization stabilization, stagnation, decline or desertification, considering the possible role of heritage, as well as small towns' creativity in networking initiatives.

Jaroslav Ira: Luda Klusáková (*1950- +2020) - Jaroslav Ira: Foreword - Luda Klusáková and Blanca Del Espino Hidalgo: Principles for heritage- based resilience in small towns facing the global era - Lars Nilsson: Can small towns survive in a global world? The cases of Avesta and Söderhamn - Réka Horeczki: Does the development history influence how we think about small towns? - Mónica Jimena Ramé: Corredor Bio- Comechingones, an innovative regional scale agreement among small towns - Paola Pellegrini: Networking of small communities for heritagization - Consuelo Isabel Astrella: Railway: From global infrastructure to local heritage. The case of the historic railroad Avellino- Rocchetta in Southern Italy - Jan Krajícek: Balancing between local and global: Heritage presentations of central European small towns (Case of Telc and Bardejov) - Elena Elts: Entry into the UNESCO club: The experience of the Ulyanovsk region - Katja Maaria Huovinen: Touristification of historic urban centres in the Southern Italian Salento region - Blanca Del Espino Hidalgo - Luda Klusáková: Heritage characterization and strategies for resilient small towns - Note on authors.