Management of cultural heritage is an issue that is attracting increasing attention worldwide, as emphasis shifts from pure conservation issues to issues of future sustainability of heritage sites. Experience seems to suggest that it is difficult to preserve heritage sites without embedding them into a cultural vital social and economic environment, whereas at the same time there is the risk that, by putting excessive focus on the economic dimension, they are turned into theme parks with gradual loss of authenticity and progressive disintegration of their cultural and historical value. This paper tackles these issues through a comparative study of two Japanese heritage cities, Otaru and Yubari, both in the Hokkaido Island of the Japanese archipelago. Continue reading Culture driven policies and revaluation of local cultural assets: A tale of two cities, Otaru and Yubari
Tag Archives: Community Building
Understanding culture-led local development: A critique of alternative theoretical explanations
In this paper we carry out a meta-analytic review of the literature on culture-led local development models.We identify and discuss three typical fallacies characterising mono-causal culture-led development schemes: instrumentalism, over-engineering, and parochialism. Continue reading Understanding culture-led local development: A critique of alternative theoretical explanations
Cultural Access and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study
Loss of well-being, rising rates of depression and various psychological illnesses are a public health concern. This study aims to explore the associations between cultural access and mental illness. Continue reading Cultural Access and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study
Cultural Participation, Relational Goods and Individual Subjective Well-Being: Some Empirical Evidence
This paper focuses on the role of cultural participation as a source of individual subjective well-being in terms of the sociability orientation of different cultural activities. Continue reading Cultural Participation, Relational Goods and Individual Subjective Well-Being: Some Empirical Evidence
A Conceptual Regulatory Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex, Participative Cultural Planning Strategies
The current hype about culture-led local development models is causing an increasing interest in cultural policies in the broader context of urban policy. This is not necessarily a transitory situation bound to fade once the hype is over. Under certain conditions, there is room to believe that culture may indeed become a main development driver of urban systems. Continue reading A Conceptual Regulatory Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex, Participative Cultural Planning Strategies
Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts II: Prototype Cases
Building upon the companion paper in this issue, this essay analyses five case studies that can be taken as prototypes of the system-wide cultural district culture-led developmental model. The research targets five cities in Europe and the U.S.: Valencia, Austin, Newcastle/Gateshead, Linz, and Denver. Continue reading Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts II: Prototype Cases
Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts I: Theory
Building on the early works of Alfred Marshall, analyses of local economies have emphasized the spatial function of clusters and industrial districts in terms of external economies of localization and agglomeration. Recent literature has emphasized the importance of culture and the complementarities between culture and local tangible and intangible assets. This paper aims to provide an analytical foundation for these processes with a view to developing tools for policy design, analysis and evaluation. By “system-wide cultural districts,” we refer to a new approach to local development where cultural production and participation present significant strategic complementarities with other production chains. Continue reading Culture as an Engine of Local Development Processes: System-Wide Cultural Districts I: Theory
The Impact of Culture on the Individual Subjective Well-Being of the Italian Population: An Exploratory Study
The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between cultural access and individual psychological well-being, in order to provide a possible estimation of the impact of cultural participation upon subjective perceptions of well being. Continue reading The Impact of Culture on the Individual Subjective Well-Being of the Italian Population: An Exploratory Study
The Social Viability of Culture-led Urban Transformation Processes: Evidence from the Bicocca District, Milan
This paper investigates the relationships between cultural activities/investments and urban transformation processes, with reference to the transformation of the Bicocca district in the metropolitan core of Milan. Continue reading The Social Viability of Culture-led Urban Transformation Processes: Evidence from the Bicocca District, Milan
Evolutionary Selection of Socially Sensitive Preferences in Random Matching Environments
In this paper we study the evolutionary selection of socially sensitive preferences in the context of reference interaction settings such as coordination failure and cooperation. We refer to a specific class of socially sensitive preferences in which players weigh additively their own material payoff against the opponent with either a positive or negative coefficient (lambda-players). Continue reading Evolutionary Selection of Socially Sensitive Preferences in Random Matching Environments
re:thinking culture 