Distretti industriali e distretti culturali: analogie, limiti, indirizzi di politica del territorio (Industrial districts and cultural districts: similarities, limits and directions of regional policies)

This essay focuses on the recent transposition of the industrial district model into the cultural sector. This is underscored through an analysis of the cultural offer of Matera (a
city in southern Italy). Yet the ‘district’ label, which in the economy of manufacture goods
assumes specific characteristics by now consolidated in economists’ interpretation, appears rather wide and heterogeneous if applied to a range of cultural experiences, from museum area to typical wine and food productions until art handcraft.
This work is not intended to legitimate - or not - the ‘cultural district’, but to understand
if there is any cause and which one specifically could explain the needs and the potential benefits of a ‘cultural districtualizazion’.