Alessia Usai

Literature on cultural districts has repeatedly pointed out the role of place branding as a tool to upgrade the image of urban environment as an indicator of meaning and significance. Throughout the case of UNESCO’s mining heritage district in Sardinia (Italy), the purpose of this paper is to investigate on the role that Place Branding Organizations (PBOs) has and/or may have in the construction of coherent images for landscape and cultural heritage in the design of “sustainable” cultural districts in connection with local authorities’ agenda. At this purpose, the authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” and a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity within place branding theory.

Cultural policies have been a typical expression of national states since the beginning of the XIX century. For this reason, they are mainly focused on conservation and enhancement of historical and artistic heritage and they are lead by State bodies, directly or through public-private partnerships. At the end of the Nineties, the growth of urban regeneration policies has foster the coordinated implementation of strategic initiatives related to cultural heritage within the framework of local development policies. This strategies, firstly defined as planning for the arts, are now collected under the “label” of cultural planning as they are involving a wider range of cultural resources (natural assets, industrial heritage sites, forms of intangible heritage, etc.) (Bianchini, 2001; Byrne, 2012; Goodall,1995; Landry, 2006; Stevenson, 2014). Recently, the economic theories on technological innovation have lead the attention on creative absorptive capacity of culture, supporting a cultural development of the economy (Lazzeretti, 2013). This procedural and creative dimension of culture, however, is so broad that induce to question what is or is not art for the purpose of programming and when public policies end living space to cultural planning (Byrne, 2012; Pratt, 2008). In Europe this emerges evaluating the effects of EU cultural planning on urban and regional development in its member countries because European projects sometimes are managed directly by the Directorates of the European Commission (centralized management), other through national and regional Operative Programs linked to national cultural policies (de-centralized management of the Cohesion Policy).
The study tries to shed light on this aspect, firstly describing facilities and resources devoted to culture within the European Union and, then, analyzing the 2007-2014 programming and the preliminary documents of the 2014-2020 cycle. In the final part, the useful elements emerged are discussed providing some considerations on the role of central governments and regions in the implementation of cultural planning initiatives financed with Structural Funds.

State Property Federalism and Local Autonomies: The Instruments to Adjust the Inter-institutional Relations in the Transfer of Coastal Assets Belonging to the Ministry of Defence
In recent years the lack of reforms in the field of public real estate assets (Articles 822-823 Civil Code) has led to the proliferation of measures to encourage management models in line with EU's programming. The LD. 85/2010 on the transfer of State properties to Regions and provinces has been approved in this context. Region and provinces must be able to manage these properties through real estate investment trusts or publicly owned companies. However, according to the rules on fiscal federalism, the State properties' transfer cannot be applied to devolved territories (Autonomous Regions: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Trentino Alto Adige, Aosta Valley; Autonomous provinces: Trento and Bolzano). As a result, a substantial portion of the Defense's estates located in the Alps and in the coastal areas have been excluded from transfer leading to contrasted reactions. By reference to the case of Sardinia, we propose a reflection on the solutions put in place by devolved territories to regulate relations with institutional bodies involved in the transfer of Defense's properties in coastal areas trying not to be excluded from the benefits of the LD. 85/2010

The contemporary research for alternative and sustainable models of development is based on collaborating networks of urban polarities aiming to create an added value for the global territorial system. In these models, the economic, environmental and social issues are framed following territory identity and according to local resources, above all cultural heritage and landscape. In particular, the recovery of some community practices and their application in land use planning allows the creation of cooperative distinctive networks which are able to develop knowledge-based tools aimed to respond in a “creative” way to a pre-assembled urbanism model. In this discourse, it is possible to fit the strategies inspired by endogenous growth that some urban and rural communities have fielded rediscovering and reinterpreting the rules of the historical landscape construction, the behaviours and practices related to it. They become central in the contemporary debate on common goods and civic uses. Some regions aspire to develop innovative tools starting from these practices to stand out as places of excellence. One of the privileged asset is the redesign of economic policies together with the regional image to create induced economies in tourism and attract investment, planning landscape and territory with the inhabitants. The traditional instruments of regional planning must therefore be questioned. They have been revisited according to multidimensional and cooperative approaches in the attempt to involve the final stakeholders of plans and projects, spacing from the regional scale to a neighbourhood level, from urban planning to the cultural policies. New perspectives are opened today by the spread of the landscape approach which inextricably links territorial planning and cultural heritage enhancement to needs and aspirations of local communities. The study try to shed light on the contributions given by cultural heritage-based development models in the construction of resilient, competitive and “distinctive” regions according to territorial vocations, making local communities less vulnerable to economic and environmental impacts of global competition. Through a critical analysis of the literature and the Sardinia Region experience we attempt to provide some guidelines for the draft of regional planning tools inspired to landscape approach and the related community engagement.

Nel dibattito internazionale focalizzato sul rinnovato ruolo della città non solo come luogo di sviluppo espansivo, ma come supporto policentrico di produzione culturale e creativa, i sistemi amministrativi tradizionali appaiono impreparati nel gestire la complessità della metropoli contemporanea, anche nel caso in cui essi siano stati riformati seguendo modelli di governance aperti, flessibili e orientati al mercato. In Italia ciò emerge soprattutto in relazione alle Città Metropolitane che, sebbene siano ormai riconosciute a livello costituzionale , stentano a trovare una effettiva attuazione per i problemi legati soprattutto al riordino delle competenze tra Regione, Province e Comuni anche per quanto riguarda  l’erogazione di servizi sovra-comunali o di ‘area vasta’.  Ripercorrendo le principali fasi del dibattito politico-amministrativo che ha portato all’ istituzione delle Città Metropolitane,  il lavoro intende fare luce su questo aspetto analizzando l’attività di pianificazione delle funzioni e dei servizi sovra-comunali, con la finalità di delineare i modelli relazionali esistenti tra gli attori metropolitani e la loro possibile influenza sull’affermazione delle Città Metropolitane come motori di sviluppo.
Lo studio inoltre vuole essere un’occasione per riflettere sull’influenza dei processi di autonomia regionale, sull’esempio di regioni a statuto speciale come la Sardegna. A tal fine ci si concentra sul processo di dismissione degli enti provinciali avviato nell’isola, in seguito al risultato della recente consultazione popolare (referendum 6/05/2012), e sul ruolo strategico che l’istituzione di un organismo di governo metropolitano, nel caso dell’area vasta cagliaritana, potrebbe assumere in relazione alle attività di pianificazione del territorio.
La ricerca di modelli relazionali per la costruzione di parterships e networks in ambito metropolitano trova forti argomentazioni nella letteratura urbanistica in cui la pianificazione di area vasta è diretta alla gestione coordinata di problemi di interesse collettivo legati alla rete infrastrutturale, alla mobilità, alla tutela e valorizzazione del territorio e allo sviluppo socio-economico. Il dibattito sull’estensione e sulle competenze delle aree metropolitane, in relazione alle Province e alla loro recente abolizione o revisione, costringe, in particolare, ad una riflessione sulla funzione e sui contenuti dei piani territoriali di coordinamento.
Lo studio apre a nuove prospettive sui processi di gestione delle relazioni istituzionali ed amministrative che incidono sulla pianificazione di area vasta e, più in generale, sulla nuova città metropolitana come istituzione. L’analisi delle relazioni tra gli attori metropolitani (alleanze e reti) può fornire elementi utili per la costruzione della nuova Agenda Urbana Nazionale (CIPU)  e l’uso efficace dei fondi comunitari 2014-2020 (Horizon 2020).

La recente crisi economica e i limiti imposti alla spesa pubblica hanno accelerato la diffusione di modelli gestionali privatistici nella rigenerazione dello spazio pubblico e nella valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale, con la conseguente necessità, da parte degli enti locali, di investire nell’adozione di modelli di gestione derivati dal settore privato (De Marchi, 2009) e di ampliare l’indotto dei risultati ottenuti, in termini di efficacia ed efficienza. Nel seguente lavoro gli autori intendono indagare l’influenza di questi modelli gestionali su rigenerazione urbana e patrimonio culturale, a partire dalle ultime iniziative per la città.

L’accordo di valorizzazione del complesso immobiliare di San Domenico e della
Chiesa di S. Lorenzo in Ponte si inserisce nel programma d'interventi previsti dal
Piano di Gestione UNESCO per il centro storico di San Gimignano, patrimoniodell’umanità dal 1990. Esso costituisce il primo esempio di trasferimento
nell’ambito del federalismo demaniale culturale.

A large number of questions arise from policies concerning people decision making. This happen especially in the planning activity where may occur disagreements or conflicts. Hence, it is important to settle these disagreements and conflicts stemming from questions such as which are the critical qualities of a place, what could constitute an improvement, how it is possible to improve a place, how can we move from possible ideas about the future to effective action programs.
Moving from Sardinian regional landscape Plan (PPR) case-study, the paper aims to contribute to extracting a participatory planning model which has modified the way of living and using the landscape. A mixture of factors is relevant to understand the various behaviors and attitudes of key actor groups. Human interactions through which decisions are taken to transform complex organization as landscape are important. It is also clear that the landscape as complex organization cannot be centrally planned and controlled without failure.
Recent practices and researches show that a collaborative people based approach allows gains in quality, efficiency, both in expert knowledge and in others fields. Evaluating failure and learning from failure is essential when organizing the people landscape interpretation and people’s behavior in landscape planning. According to several studies, a rethinking of people interactions model is important to reformulate a new landscape paradigm that the whole governance system requires. In Sardinia the landscape demand is strong and the few studies on economic results of Landscape Regional Plan, adopted in 2006, are not fit to depict a positive regional economy situation. In addition, our research demonstrates that the attractiveness of regional landscape depends on the different cura played by the participatory and inclusive process: territories where the development control is people-driven are better valued by transnational tourism.
We will try to explain different situations in which landscape is a people interpreting subject, using some codified methods. Starting from the sociological point of view, the first one is the sociological interview compared with other situations and experiences; the second one is the study of different contexts based on comparative study method. We highlight the “community of practice” in the Patsy Healey‘s sense to define the identitary landscape role (Healey 2010). The most central feature is surely the cross-disciplinary recognition that has emerged since the early 2000’s of landscape as unifying theme both in scholarship and non-academic practice, the latter no doubt best represented by the European Convention of Landscape (ELC). Equally significant in academia, government and people’s every-day life is the notion of identity that has come to play a particular prominent part in smaller European countries and regions like Sardinia.

The recent economic crisis has strongly affected the spending capacity of local governments which have had to adopt austerity policies and increase their territorial competitiveness. Regions and global-cities are then looking for "original" plans and programs, tailored on resources available in a given territory, respectful of its settled communities and their identity, and able to provide sustainability to the global competition. In Europe many regions have identified in landscape planning based on historical, cultural and environmental heritage the way to a sustainable future. Despite this, in Italy the regional landscape project culture acts through the instrument of the obligation. Only recently it has been discussed the possibility to make the restrictions become a shared instrument for landscape project, as demonstrated during the first revision of the Landscape Plans drafted after the adoption of the Italian Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape in 2004. The paper aims to investigate the innovative methodologies introduced by the landscape planning in building set of rules referred to stratified, historical and cultural sites within planning instruments and according to territorial competitiveness principles. It is taken into account the case of the Sardinian Regional Landscape Plan (2006), now in redraft, in which they were introduced new problematic categories of cultural assets detected on the bases of their identitary value. The objective is to defining a set of rules in order to clear up Identitary Heritage concept and its implementation in urban and regional planning in order to ensure an effective sustainable territorial competitiveness.

During the last decade has been developed a vast literature on the subject of competition among cities linked to local development policies. The post-industrial context, historically, has been marked by neoliberalism and reduction of available resources. This, on one hand, forced public bodies to adopt an entrepreneurial approach rather than a bureaucratic one (Crivello, 2010; Grandi, 2010); on the other hand, has generated an unclear framework. To conquer new markets in the "new new economy" (Florida, 2003, 2005) and create virtuous circles at the microscale, local authorities have focused their activity on environmental and cultural heritage as a scarce and not reproducible resource (Carta, 2002, 2004, 2007; Sacco, 2006; Scandale, 2005).
Innovative practices of redevelopment and regeneration have set new parameters able to ensure new forms of urban development. Among these, "creativity" is meant as the ability to attract / produce art and culture (Scott, 2001, 2006; Latour, 1995) and as a preparation for new solutions to established problems (Agnoletti, 2011; De Certau, 1990; Huggins and Clifton, 2011; Landry, 2000, 2009; OECD, 2006) .
In this direction we study the applicability to the Sardinian context of practices relating to the creative city and explore the possibility that the creative context can transform the local milieu (particularly in the city of Cagliari).
The case studies come mostly from Anglo-French context, such as the projects developed by the European Centre of Culture under the program Lieux Publics Marseille-Provence Européenne de la Culture Capital 2013, the projects implemented under the Lyon 2020 and implemented projects for Glasgow City of Culture (d'Albergo, 2009; Grandi, 2010; Marchigiani, 2002). They are being compared to identify useful elements to formulate development policies in the creative sector to be applied, then, to the city of Cagliari, in connection with the Project Guide-Cagliari: City of Parks Natural History and Culture included in the Municipal Strategic Plan (Ufficio di Piano, 2009). This Plan aims to make apply Cagliari as candidate to European Capital of Culture in 2019 through: the creation of a wide cultural district, entrusted with the coordination between the cultural and business sectors (including communications and marketing), the overall redevelopment and revitalization of historic quarters and the improvement of attractiveness and tourist settlements (Deplano, 2004, 2009).
The research aims to provide a set of guidelines to steer local governments tools to regenerate functional creative regional competitiveness. In this sense we envisage interesting applications for future research, such as, for instance, the extension of the creative practices to urban planning and especially to historical contexts.

La Circolare MiBAC n.18/2011 descrive in modo dettagliato la procedura del DLgs.85/2010 art.5 comma 5 per il trasferimento dei beni immobili pubblici del federalismo demaniale culturale. Tuttavia, nel definire i contenuti dell’accordo e del programma di valorizzazione alla base del trasferimento, essa non detta alcuna norma riguardo le modalità di attuazione degli interventi di recupero e le modalità di gestione del bene trasferito. Il contributo indaga su quest’aspetto analizzando gli accordi e i programmi di valorizzazione dei beni culturali già trasferiti, le loro ricadute urbanistiche e i modelli gestionali adottati. La ricerca trova argomentazioni nella letteratura giuridica sulla riforma dei beni immobili pubblici, divenuta oramai necessaria alla luce dei recenti provvedimenti che interessano il trasferimento di beni statali agli enti territoriali per la costituzione di partnership pubblico-privato locali. Lo studio apre nuove prospettive di lavoro nell’ambito delle forme di collaborazione tra pubblico e privato previste dal DLgs. 42/2004 per il patrimonio culturale.

A considerable environmental turbulence pushes cultural and creative firms to cluster and to adopt new forms of cross-integration. An issue common also to wider entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) of SMEs. This evolutionary trend has given birth to a new generation of cultural districts defined as system-wide cultural districts (SWCDs) in which culture acts like a lever for all production sectors and not merely the cultural one, as in the past. The paper investigates the internal nested geographies of SWCDs through a comparative analysis of the district policies implemented by Italian Regions from 2000 to 2015 providing a new classification of cultural districts that updates the existing ones and reflecting on the links between SWCDs, urban policies and landscape planning.