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

In the past 15 years, cultural and creative industries have been center-stage in international and national debates. Policymakers promoted culture and creativity in dedicated initiatives and the need for evidence-based policy has prompted governments to undertake broad-scope cultural mapping, in order to identify spatially-defined systems of cultural and creative activities, such as clusters and districts. This has specifically been the case in Italy where, currently, the term “cultural district” is indifferently adopted for both analyzing a spatial conformation of cultural production and consumption and for promoting specific policies targeting the social organizations managing these activities. It has not yet been questioned whether these two acceptations should be separated or not. In order to address such a question, this paper reviews the relevant national and international literature, provides an overview of Cultural Districts in Italy explaining the contextual characteristics and constraints. It draws on two in-depth case studies: one mainly focusing on cultural mapping and the other on policy intervention. The authors maintain that it is not appropriate to use the concept as an analytical unit as well as a ready-made policy measure, at least with reference to Italy. Significant distinction should be made since the cultural district model has high explicative relevance but it needs to be reconsidered as a policy instrument.