Cultural and Creative Industries as Activators and Attractors for Contemporary Culture-Driven Nomadism

The aim of this chapter is to analyse why cultural and creative industries are becoming particularly significant for the development and activation of local territories (Lazzeretti, L., Capone, F., & Casadei, P., Tourism in the City. Towards an Integrative Agenda on Urban Tourism. Springer, 2017). More specifically, it focuses on innovative Italian realities characterized by creative production, cultural tourism and territorial regeneration and on their relative impacts on creating collective imaginaries with regard to site-specific sociocultural identities (Iannilli, V., & Linfante, V., ZoneModa Journal 9:141-165, 2019). Culture-intensive goods and services (Hesmondhalgh, D., The Cultural Industries. Sage, 2002; see also Bovone, L., & Mora, E., Saperi e mestieri dell'industria culturale. Franco Angeli, 2003) are a critical component of cultural and creative industries. As such, they are spurring the activation of local communities and attracting global, culture-driven travellers within our contemporary, nomadic society (Bertola, P., Colombi, C., & Vacca, F., Strategic Design Research Journal, 2022). In light of this scenario, two main trajectories concerning the type of community involved and the actions within the territory have been identified and applied as variables for the development of four scenarios with the aim to guide future design strategies. Therefore, four exemplifying cases are provided which represent respectively four possible design strategies and innovation trajectories for an impactful, positive, and sustainable cultural and creative consumption. The aim of the present study is not to define an immediately generalizable model, but to provide a first synthesis, identifying general features and scenarios related to cultural regeneration processes and multidisciplinary actors. By so doing, future research paths can be opened capable of practically engaging with the theoretical implications provided in this chapter.