Environmental sustainability for social wellbeing: framing sustainability in discourses about urban regeneration projects in Milan

The public communication of urban regeneration projects has interested scholars of discourse analysis for its employment of framing strategies in their promotion to the population (Jones, 2018). As “structures of expectation” (R.N. Ross, 1975), frames both provide the cognitive tools to interpret topics and can be used to shape people’s perceptions and evaluations of them (Tannen, 1993). Since the 90s, discourses around urban regeneration have increasingly foregrounded sustainability – understood both as environmental and social – as one of the main challenges that modern cities have to face in urban planning (Roberts & Sykes, 2000). While urban development policies frame urban regeneration mainly as a tool for increasing economic wealth, a change of perspective towards a new kind of sustainability taking into account the health and wellbeing of city residents appears to be emerging in public communication. Indeed, the presence of well-kept natural environments in urban areas has been proved to be beneficial for residents (Carrus et al., 2015). This focus seems to be particularly prominent in the discursive construction of the Milan Innovation District (MIND), a multi-purpose area on the outskirts of Milan which previously hosted the 2015 World Exposition and is now being renovated to become the new scientific and innovation hub of the city, as well as in that of one of its main partners, Lendlease. Using the theoretical framework of frames, this study proposes a qualitative analysis of MIND and Lendlease’s websites to investigate a possible shift in paradigm towards a heightened focus on sustainability as a means for current and future urban regeneration projects to achieve health and wellbeing in citizens.