THE EVOLVED CULTURAL DISTRICT AS A TOOL FOR LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN AREAS

Abstract

Actions of local economic development have the strategic objective of increasing the capacity of a town to attract national and international investments in innovative sectors of activity, thus increasing the value, in particular, of the inner city. With respect to the cultural sector, the hypothesis for intervention is based on the belief that the attractiveness of a territory hinges increasingly upon its capacity to offer a non-material component rather than a material one (the physical and natural capital). Starting from this consideration, the author introduces the concept of “evolved cultural district”, whose meaning can be understood adequately only in the framework of a theoretical perspective that highlights its relationship with economic and local development. The cultural district, in fact, is fuelled by such things as individual liberty, innovation, creativity, quality of life: the same non-material prerequisites that, according to economists, will lead to – and to a great extent are already doing so – the development of those countries with postindustrial economies. From this perspective, the evolved cultural district can be considered a great possibility for the economic and social development of a territory and, most of all, of its inhabitants. 

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