How to design cultural development strategies to boost local and regional competitiveness and comparative advantage: overview of good practices

Contracting Party: The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) (under the Framework Contract No. CDR/TL2/59/2017/1)

Period: 2018

URL: https://cor.europa.eu/en/engage/studies/Documents/cultural-development-strategies/cultural-development-strategies.pdf 

Description:

This study, co-authored by Progress Consulting S.r.l. and supported by the Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT), investigates how cultural development strategies are designed, implemented and exploited by local and regional authorities (LRAs) to boost socio-economic growth of territories. The five main research questions addressed in this work include: 

1. What is a good practice in terms of “cultural development strategy” implemented by a LRA?
2. What is contributing to the outline of a cultural development strategy?
3. Which socio-economic objectives can be achieved through cultural development strategies?
4. How do LRAs design and implement effective cultural development strategies?
5. Which are the main approaches towards the design of a cultural development strategy?

The study builds on the collection of evidence in the form of an inventory of 40 initiatives by LRAs promoting cultural development strategies across the EU having a socio-economic impact (Part 1). A deep analysis of these initiatives outlined nine main types of instruments which are adopted to design cultural development strategies and ten policy areas which are affected during implementation (Part 2). Five case studies selected among the initiatives further highlighted the framing conditions, cultural-based outputs and lessons learnt (Part 3). Finally, a set of recommendations to provide inspiration to LRAs for the design of cultural development strategies is drawn based on the evidence collected (Part 4).