The value of culture in territorial contexts: a relational model applied to emergent cultural cities in Italy

Cultural activities are increasingly regarded as critical resources. The phenomenon is being studied in recent years by differentiated streams of research that approach the topic from several points of view: the economic performances of regions (Porter 2003), the marketing attractiveness of cultural events (Kotler Haider Rein 1993) the localization distribution (Scott 2000), the social mobility and its consequences on health (Florida 2005a, b). In most cases those studies don’t take into account a factor that in our opinion is critical to comprehend nature and effects of cultural activities: the relational dimension. In this contribution we propose a relational model that takes into account the convergence of different schools of thoughts in a multidisciplinary manner, and whose aim is to understand the role of cultural organizations in value creation in local contexts. We refer the cases of six Italian cities recently put on the map by successful cultural initiatives: Brescia, Mantova, Modena, Parma, Trento and Udine.