Cultural Districts, A New Strategy for Regional Development? The South-East Cultural District in Sicily

Abstract

Le Blanc A. Cultural districts, a new strategy for regional development? The South-East Cultural District in Sicily, Regional Studies. The industrialization of cultural production and a strong trend for the development of regional networks have recently led to the creation of new spatial and economic forms called 'cultural districts'. However, these new economic systems rely on very different geographical bases, types of products, and developmental processes. In Italy, the first cultural district was created in 2004 to foster the preservation of cultural heritage and boost tourist development in the late Baroque cities of the so-called Val di Noto in south-east Sicily. The main objective of the district is to support local socio-economic development through the promotion of the region's architectural cultural heritage and the local craft industry. The new structure aims at creating a real network between these towns so that they can compete globally. A specific form of spatial organization, the newly created South-East Cultural District, is based on cultural and architectural similarities, but is confronted with major obstacles such as economic heterogeneity, a lack of innovation, and physical distance between the towns. Such obstacles will have to be overcome if success is expected in creating synergies and in integrating other economic sectors. [image omitted] Le Blanc A. Les districts culturels, une nouvelle strategie d'amenagement du territoire? Le district culturel du sud-est de la Sicile, Regional Studies. L'industrialisation de la production culturelle et une forte tendance au developpement des reseaux regionaux ont amene recemment a la creation de nouvelles delimitations geographiques et economiques appelles 'districts culturels'. Toujours est-il que ces nouveaux systemes economiques se fondent sur des bases geographiques, des genres de produits, et des processus de developpement tout a fait differents. En Italie, l'etablissement du premier district culturel a eu lieu en 2004 afin d'encourager la preservation du patrimoine culturel et donner du tonus au developpement du tourisme dans les grandes villes de la Val di Noto dans le sud-est de la Sicile et qui datent de la fin de l'epoque baroque et qui se situent. L'objectif principal du district est de soutenir le developpement socio-economique local par la promotion du patrimoine culturel architectural regional et de l'artisanat local. La nouvelle structure cherche a creer un veritable reseau de grandes villes de sorte qu'elles puissent rivaliser la concurrence sur le plan mondial. Une forme particuliere de l'organisation geographique, le District culturel du sud-est, nouvellement cree, est fonde sur des similarites culturelles et architecturales mais se retrouve face a d'importants obstacles, tels l'heterogeneite economique, un manque d'innovation et la distance geographique entre les villes. Il faudra surmonter de tels obstacles si on va reussir a creer des synergies et a integrer d'autres secteurs economiques. District Culture Reseau Industrie Patrimoine...

What does a cultural district actually do? Critically reappraising 15 years of cultural district policy in Italy

“…CDs in Bologna provide leadership and supervision to 56 municipalities, over 250 cultural organizations and hundreds of associations. The South-East CD in Sicily offers different itineraries across the UNESCO site of Noto, renowned worldwide for its baroque architecture (Le Blanc, 2010). In Lombardy, CDs funded by Fondazione Cariplo also engage in cultural planning.…”

Is the concept of the cultural district appropriate for both analysis and policymaking? Two cases in Northern Italy

“…Similarly, while international definitions refer to a CD as an area of a city, or a neighborhood, other Italian definitions emphasize the relational aspect of CDs (Valentino, 2003), and as a ''mix of top-down planned elements and emergent, self-organized activities" (Sacco, Tavano Blessi, & Nuccio, 2008, p. 3). The term Cultural District has been used to designate various types of cultural clusters, from neighborhood level (Mommaas, 2004;Stern & Seifert, 2007 to city-wide (Frost-Kumpf, 1998) and regional networks (Le Blanc, 2010). Several authors have highlighted the need for greater conceptual clarity by making distinctions and classifications of CDs: Cooke and Lazzeretti (2008) underscored the need to conceptually distinguish between creative businesses clusters and cultural amenity concentrations; Stern and Seifert (2007) pointed out the difference between 'natural' Cultural Districts and policydriven ones.…”

“…: Cooke and Lazzeretti et al, 2008;Lazzeretti et al, 2008;Lorenzini, 2011;Pratt, 2008;Santagata, 2002;Scott, 1997) and the other concerned with urban planning and cultural policy interventions for the stimulation or creation of cultural clusters as areas for cultural consumption and production (e.g. : Frost-Kumpf, 1998; Le Blanc, 2010;Mommaas, 2004;Sacco et al, 2008;Stern & Seifert, 2010). The two acceptations are often tacitly adopted and explored across policy and geography studies, without pointing out the similarities, differences and implications that mapping has for policy making and vice versa.…”

The Case of Louvre-Lens: Regional Regeneration Through Cultural Innovation

“…Th e cultural development in the presented case study is coordinated at the regional level, similarly to the development in Sicily (Le Blanc, 2010) and Nuremberg (BialkWolf, Pechlaner, & Nordhorn, 2013), while innovative IT is used to facilitate strong stakeholder engagement, similarly to the case of Genova (Chiabai, Paskaleva, & Lombardi, 2013). In contrast to the cities of Istanbul, Pecs and Essen (Polat, 2013) and Lille (Baudelle & Krauss, 2014), the city of Lens and the wider region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais have not used the capital of culture status to promote themselves internationally.…”