Key Drivers of the Economic and Social Efficacy of Cultural Activities: the Case of Turin
Cinzia Parolini Full Professor Department of Economics and Business University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) Senior Faculty member of SDA Bocconi Member of ASK (Art, Science and Knowledge) Research Center (Bocconi University) Via Bocconi 8 – 20136 – Milano – Italy Tel. 39/02/5836.6321 – Fax: 39/02/5836.6892 Email: cinzia.parolini@sdabocconi.it
Cities are like dreams, being made up of desires and fears.
Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili [Invisible Cities]
Abstract
Cultural activities can contribute significantly to renewal processes in communities afflicted by economic and social underdevelopment or decline, but empirical observations reveal that they often fail to live up to initial expectations. This paper maintains that, if cultural initiatives are to be exploited to the full, they need to be integrated with broader city plans in which individual initiatives contribute to an overall and explicit cultural policy and, more importantly, the latter need to be developed jointly with social, economic and town planning policy makers. Empirically, the paper draws on the case of Turin, a city which, over the last few years, has managed to move from the worrying social and economic decline triggered by the Fiat crisis towards a renaissance phase that is largely based on enhancing its cultural assets within a strategic city plan in which, for example, the 2006 Winter Olympics were seen as part of a broader image building strategy as well as an opportunity to create major new cultural spaces.
Introduction
Over the last few years, the ongoing evolution of modern cities has aroused growing interest. In their different ways, architects, town planners, sociologists and economists have all been trying to identify the effects that motorisation, dematerialisation, globalisation, industrial delocalisation and immigration have had on urban areas and, above all, seeking to... [continues]
Cinzia Parolini Full Professor Department of Economics and Business University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) Senior Faculty member of SDA Bocconi Member of ASK (Art, Science and Knowledge) Research Center (Bocconi University) Via Bocconi 8 – 20136 – Milano – Italy Tel. 39/02/5836.6321 – Fax: 39/02/5836.6892 Email: cinzia.parolini@sdabocconi.it
Cities are like dreams, being made up of desires and fears.
Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili [Invisible Cities]
Abstract
Cultural activities can contribute significantly to renewal processes in communities afflicted by economic and social underdevelopment or decline, but empirical observations reveal that they often fail to live up to initial expectations. This paper maintains that, if cultural initiatives are to be exploited to the full, they need to be integrated with broader city plans in which individual initiatives contribute to an overall and explicit cultural policy and, more importantly, the latter need to be developed jointly with social, economic and town planning policy makers. Empirically, the paper draws on the case of Turin, a city which, over the last few years, has managed to move from the worrying social and economic decline triggered by the Fiat crisis towards a renaissance phase that is largely based on enhancing its cultural assets within a strategic city plan in which, for example, the 2006 Winter Olympics were seen as part of a broader image building strategy as well as an opportunity to create major new cultural spaces.
Introduction
Over the last few years, the ongoing evolution of modern cities has aroused growing interest. In their different ways, architects, town planners, sociologists and economists have all been trying to identify the effects that motorisation, dematerialisation, globalisation, industrial delocalisation and immigration have had on urban areas and, above all, seeking to... [continues]
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