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Journal of Economic Geography 8 (2008) pp. 651673 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbn027Advance Access Published on 30 July 2008

Cultural districts and the challenge of authenticity:the case of Piedmont, Italyy

Lorenzo Mizzau* and Fabrizio Montanari**

Abstract

Despite the globalizing nature of contemporary cultural artefacts, in many cases

creativity seems to be still very much grounded in local geographic, social and

economic contexts. In particular, many authors have recently highlighted the increasing

relevance of local cultural districts. This article tries to investigate how and why certain

public policies could be more effective in developing an area into a cultural district.

In doing so, we will analyse the case of Piedmonts music district, particularly focusing

on the role of public policies in its development, and interpreting the evidences through

the theoretical perspective of authenticity.

Keywords: cultural district, authenticity, music industry, embeddedness, cultural industries

JEL classifications: L82, R12, R50, Z10

Date submitted: 1 September 2007 Date accepted: 12 June 2008

1. Introduction

Despite the globalizing nature of contemporary cultural artefacts, in many cases

creativity seems to be still very much grounded in local geographic, social and economiccontexts (Scott, 1999, 2000). If distribution and consumption practices of many cultural

products seem to be affected by relevant globalization forces, their production

dynamics are often localized in cultural clusters that resemble industrial districts

(Maskell and Lorenzen, 2004; Power and Scott, 2004). Moreover, there appear to be a

positive interplay between these two tendencies, since recent developments in

communication and information technologies are continually opening up new forms

of cultural distribution and production, increasingly linking small local producers with

global production and distribution networks (Brown et al., 2000; Power and Scott,

2004; Anderson, 2006).

Along with the increasing attention that has been devoted over the last decades to the

study of cultural industries, considerable efforts have been made in studying cultural

districts or clusters, namely, the locational aspects of aggregations of cultural industries

(Scott, 2000; Power and Scott, 2004). Local governments, in particular, have tried to

undertake appropriate actions and policies in order to exploit potential advantages that

cultural districts seem to grant in economic, cultural and social terms. Among them,

yThis is a revised version of an article presented at the 22nd EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies)Colloquium, 69 July 2006, Bergen, Norway.*Corresponding author: University of Bologna & ASK, Centre for Research on Management and Economicsof Arts and Culture Institutions, Bocconi University, Milan 20136, via Roentgen, 1, Italy.

[email protected]**University of Modena and Reggio Emilia & CRORA Bocconi University.

The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]

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for example, there are positive externalities related to enhanced quality of life and image

of a place, and economic virtuous circles typically produced by localized industrial

districts. Furthermore, the fast-pacing growth of the cultural sectors in the modern

economy and the progressive culturalization or symbolicization of traditional

products add to this renewed interest (Scott, 2000).

While many local authorities have started to invest relevant resources in sustaining

cultural districts, directions and drivers for implementing effective policies still need to

be clarified. In fact, despite a general consensus on the modes of functioning of cultural

districts and some general directions on how government authorities and policy-makers

could intervene in the development of cultural districts, several questions still remain

unanswered. For example, how and why certain public policies could be more effective

in developing an area into a cultural district? What is the required balance between the

spontaneous development of an existent cultural scene and governmental intervention?

How the presence of a cultural district could affect the formation (or the reinforcement)

of the local identity?

We will try to answer to some of these questions by analysing the case of Piedmont, aregion situated in the north-west area of Italy and representing one of Italys most

vibrating music scenes. Piedmont is characterized by the presence of some important

independent labels, hosts some of the most famous Italian bands, and has recently

gained particular national and international visibility in the realm of electronic music

through a project sponsored by local regional authorities. We aim to contribute to the

existing body of literature by focusing on the role played by local public authorities in

facilitating the development of the local musical district. While extant research has been

mainly focused on the contraposition between top-down and bottom-up approaches to

cultural districts development policies, this article tries to understand why and how

bottom-up approaches could be more effective. In so doing, we will draw on thetheoretical framework on authenticity in the cultural industries (Peterson, 1997, 2005;

Jones et al., 2005), highlighting the importance of basing public policies on the

exploitation of local cultural germs. In other words, public cultural policies could be

more effective in favouring the development of a cultural district, when they are directed

to the development of cultural clusters that local and external audiences perceive as

really authentic in relation to the local, geographic, social and cultural context.

This article is divided in three sections. The first one illustrates the theoretical

background and motivations behind the study. The second one presents the case of the

musical district of Piedmont. The last one discusses the results, also drawing on the

theoretical framework on authenticity. The article ends with a brief conclusion.

2. Cultural districts and their relevance to policy issues

Cultural districts can be defined as non-random concentrations or agglomerations in

space of differently sized autonomous cultural firms or institutions, with a prevalence of

small and medium ones (Scott, 1996; Santagata, 2004). Cultural districts actors are

characterized by a high degree of specialization and complementarity in the production

of the final cultural products or services (Maskell and Lorenzen, 2004). Such organ-

izations, thus, exhibit a high degree of vertical disintegration, because of their

relatively small dimensions and their high level of specialization, but, as a system,they encompass at least in part the key activities of a determined cultural-product

652 . Mizzau and Montanari



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value chain. The cultural districts geographical space of extension could be different,

ranging from cultural vocational quarters or neighbourhoods in towns or cities (e.g. the

Manchesters Northern Quarter), to more enlarged areas more similar to the Third

Italy industrial districts (Brown et al., 2000).

The reasons for cultural industries tendency to aggregate in cultural districts, as well

as advantages that cultural districts are able to grant their members and the local

communities, are widely acknowledged in literature. As a starting point, it seems

that traditional arguments relative to the functioning of industrial districts (Brusco,

1982; Piore and Sabel, 1984; Becattini, 1990; Staber, 1998; Swann et al., 1998; Becchetti

and Rossi, 2000) hold. In particular, agglomeration economies are possible since

transportation and information costs are reduced by the spatial proximity of actors.

Furthermore, members of a district could use coordinating mechanisms typical of the

network form of governance, exploiting all the advantages usually associated with it

(Jones et al., 1997; Brass et al., 2004). In fact, as cultural districts are characterized by

spatial proximity, they allow their members for a frequent possibility of formal and

informal encounter. Such intense and frequent, often face-to-face, interactions favourthe emergence of a social context that is characterized by a high level of embeddedness,

which refers to the fact that economic actors courses of action are influenced by the

social context in which they operate (Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1996). Not only actors

have relationships with one another, but also dyads mutual contacts are connected to

one other (Granovetter, 1992, 35), such that actors often have relationships with the

same third parties, thus increasing the number of parties linked (directly or indirectly).

An intense and fine-grained exchange of (economic and reputational) information

among partners and about third parties, the restriction of access to the network, the

formation of a professional macroculture (a system of widely shared assumptions and

values), collective sanctions to members who do not behave appropriately, are all

mechanisms by which the potential for opportunistic behaviour and misfeance is limited

within the district, and negotiating and contractual costs are reduced (Jones et al., 1997).

Both organizational and economic literatures highlight the advantages of face-to-face

contact typical of districts in terms of communication technology, formation of trust

capital and incentives to cooperate, screening and socializing, and motivation (Storper

and Venables, 2004). In industrial districts, in fact, social coordinating mechanisms

increase flexibility and efficiency, favour joint decision-making arrangements and

cooperation, and allow for the free diffusion of information among actors, reducing

costs associated to the use of market (Santagata, 2004). Such form of governance is

found to positively affect also learning (Dei Ottati, 1994), creativity (Woodman et al.,

1993; Brass, 1995), innovation (Kanter, 1988; Lundvall, 1993) and knowledge creationand exchange (Powell et al., 1996; Maskell and Lorenzen, 2004; Bathelt, 2005). In other

words, district actors will have an incentive to cooperate, and to share information and

resources in ways that lead to learning and create innovation advantages in

interregional competition (Amin and Thrift, 1994).

Despite the counterbalancing tendency to work and collaborate in distant places

typical of the knowledge economy, exacerbated by the new information and

communication technologies and in particular the Internet (French et al., 2004), the

tendency to co-locate is even reinforced in the case of cultural districts (Storper and

Venables, 2004). This happens for several reasons. First of all, as Power and Scott

(2004, 7) argue, outputs that are rich in information, sign value and social meanings,such as that of cultural industries, are particularly sensitive to the influence of

Cultural districts and the challenge of authenticity . 653



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geographic context and creative milieu, because of the intrinsically social nature of the

production of meaning, and the fact that cultural production is based on articulated

systems of labour division and multiple contributions (Scott, 2000). Furthermore, in the

arts and cultural industries, while there are international networks at the top, in the

middle [. . .] networks are highly localized, change rapidly, and information used by

members to stay in the loop is highly context-dependent (Storper and Venables, 2004,

356). In cultural industries, more than elsewhere, the local intermediaries (such as, for

example, local independent recording companies) also exert a huge influence on the

release of the final product (Dubini and Raviola, 2006).

Second, since cultural industries are often characterized by project-based organiza-

tional structures (Faulkner and Anderson, 1987; Miller and Shamsie, 1996; Maskell and

Lorenzen, 2004), the presence of a set of more or less stable relationships between a

number of different actors with specialized skills could allow district members to

combine their different skills and competences exploiting mutual complementarities.

Cultural district members could experience advantages in terms of lower costs of

delivery thanks to the availability within a narrow geographical space of a qualified andspecialized labour force and of firms operating complementary activities, so that local

labour markets function as sets of quasi-pooled resources (Scott, 1998; Storper and

Venables, 2004; Dubini and Raviola, 2006). This leads to an increase in flexibility when

facing the indeed diverse challenges that creative industries are claimed to manage, such

as rapidly changing tastes of consumers, high industry uncertainty and recent increases

in competition due to global market pressures (Kretschmer et al., 1999; Hesmondalgh,

2002).

Moreover, it is also well acknowledged that some places, such as large metropolitan

centres like London, Paris, New York, L.A. and important city-regions (Scott, 2001),

are able to attract and concentrate vast cohorts of creative people, who are attracted bya wide offer of cultural amenities, institutions and events and by the professional

opportunities thereby provided. This has important effects on the attraction capacity of

tourists, audiences and, more importantly to us, further creative people, which in turn

increases the creative capital already accumulated in those cities (Florida, 2002). In

other words, cultural districts often function as magnets (Scott, 2000) or artistic

gravitation areas (Menger, 1993), in which creative people (not necessarily engaged in

the local districts peculiar specialized field) flow from other parts of the nation and

the world (Florida, 2002; Power and Hallencreutz, 2004). This also allows the district

to benefit of a frequent refresh of people, ideas and creative styles, introducing

innovation and preventing the district from the pathologies typical of an over-embeddedness condition (Uzzi, 1996).

In addition, when a cultural district functions properly, its outcomes are the result of

the peculiar, context-specific interactions among the actors involved, becoming, thus,

clearly distinguishable from the outcomes of other districts and thereby providing an

opportunity of differentiation and for gaining a competitive advantage (Scott, 2000). In

the history of popular music, for instance, there are many examples of musical

atmospheres developed and grounded in a peculiar social and geographic context.

Recent examples include Manchester pop-rock scene of the 1980s (The Smiths, New

Order and Happy Mondays), Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s (Nirvana, Pearl

Jam, Dinosaurus Jr.) and Bristol trip-hop scene of the 1990s (Massive Attack,Portishead and Tricky) (Brown et al., 2000).




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Cultural districts are an important feature of the modern cultural economy also

because they seem to have positive external impacts in cultural, social and economic

terms. In fact, such districts could exert huge demands on local labour markets, as they

require a variety of different skills for producing products or services (Scott, 2000).

Further, they could also attract financial investments from outside, which could

improve the local economy (Power and Hallencreutz, 2004). Cultural districts could

also be very powerful in attracting tourist flows, contrasting the decline of a geographic

area or renewing its attractiveness. There are many examples of de-industrialized areas

whose image has been positively regenerated by the rise and development of a cultural

district (Mommaas, 2004). For example, in Glasgow, during the 1980s, the development

of an effective cultural district has limited the negative consequences of the tremendous

industrial decline on the citys urban fabric, economic activities and quality of life

(Bianchini and Parkinson, 1993). In general, diffused phenomena of de-industrializa-

tion characterizing post-fordist environments have led cities to plan the re-conversion of

urban sites for artistic or cultural usages, preventing quarters from urban decay and its

social consequences, and causing, in the long term, economic benefits for apartmentowners, and those having business in the area and the surroundings (Mommaas, 2004;

Santagata, 2004).

Finally, the development of a cultural district could be the chance to renew the sense

of identity of the local community. Through increasing the commitment of citizens,

young people, and local associations in participating to the districts life, there could be

a renewal of the local culture, values and habits. This does not happen only through

the preservation of heritage and the replication of traditional forms of artistic or

cultural expression typical of the area, but also through the re-interpretation of local

cultural characters in new ways. For example, Power and Hallencreutz (2004) show how

Jamaican typical musical traditions were adapted to modern styles of music

consumption, determining a renewal of the scene.

However, despite the consensus on the reasons why cultural clusters tend to emerge

and the benefits they are able to accrue their internal members and communities, a

central question still remains unresolved. It basically regards the more effective

development paths of cultural districts, and the type of intervention and support

granted by public authorities and policymakers. The extant literature revolves around

this central question, highlighting the contraposition between top-down and bottom-

up approaches to cultural districts development policies (Brooks and Kushner, 2001;

Mommaas, 2004; McCarthy, 2005, 2006). In other words, public policies aimed at

developing cultural clusters could vary from projects which have developed as part of a

conscious top-down planning strategy, to projects which have developed from acontingent coming-together of vernacular tactics (Mommaas, 2004, 515, 516).

A first result the literature tend to converge on is that blunt top-down approaches

focused on directive planning are unlikely in and of themselves to accomplish much at

the local scale, except in specific circumstances (Power and Scott, 2004, 9). Other

authors suggest that more formal or mechanistic approaches are less preferable,

because they are less likely to promote collaboration among the actors involved, bring a

sense of ownership and encourage the spontaneous development of the artistic and

entrepreneurial activities encompassed by the cluster (Bianchini and Ghilardi, 2004;

Garcia, 2004; Wilks-Heeg and North, 2004). Moreover, a top-down approach may also

encounter some hurdles because often creative people adhere to a counter-establishmentand rebellious ethos when they feel that institutions are deciding for them.




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For example, in Sheffield, creative people developed on purpose their businesses outside

the Cultural Industries Quarter planned by local policymakers, and as a result the

Quarter itself did not succeed in becoming an active cultural district (Brown et al., 2000).

However, while the above argumentations may lead to conclude that public poli-

cies may not be able to plan and organize creative clusters directly, there is still the

feeling that they can at least create conditions favourable for the development of the

local cultural district. Accordingly, several researchers (Hitters and Richards, 2002;

Mommaas, 2004) suggest that a bottom-up approach should focus on developing

institutional infrastructures [. . .] can ease the functioning of the local economy by

providing critical overhead services, facilitating flows of information, promoting trust

and collaboration among interlinked producers (Scott, 2000, 12). For example, Brown

et al. (2000), in comparing the musical quarters of Sheffield and Manchester, point out

how the success of the latter was basically due to the adoption of a policy based on an

organic, bottom-up approach. In particular, they also highlight the importance of

enabling soft infrastructures related more to enhancing people social networking,

information exchange, skills training and transfer.Therefore, the previous literature seems to converge on a general idea that bottom-up

approaches could be more effective (e.g. Brown et al., 2000; Hitters and Richards, 2002;

Mommaas, 2004; Power and Scott, 2004), but it does not go very far in conceptually

addressing the potential role of the linkage between public policies and the

characteristics of the local context. Such a linkage, as noted also by McCarthy

(2005), could have potentially relevant implications for the development of cultural

clusters, especially in the current cultural economy context, in which factors such as

authenticity, alternativeness and distinctiveness are increasingly prized (Peterson, 1997;

Jones et al., 2005). In this article, thus, we want to focus our attention on such an under-

addressed issue, by trying to demonstrate that public cultural policies could be moreeffective when they invest on a cultural milieu that is perceived as really authentic in

relation to the local, geographic, social and cultural context. In other words, we claim

that the theoretical perspective on authenticity could shed more light on how public

policies could increase their effectiveness, when focused on nurturing existing local

cultural germs and on favouring the emergence of cultural clusters that local and

external audiences perceive as really authentic.

3. The case of Piedmont

3.1. Methodology

In analysing the case of the music district of Piedmont, we adopted an inductive, case-

based methodology that was deemed more appropriate given the exploratory nature of

our theoretical proposition (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994). In so doing, we pursued

source triangulation combining the following different data collection methods: in-

depth interviews, secondary sources and direct observation.

In particular, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 actors of the scene

(five musicians, four record labels managers, five among policy makers and

representatives of local cultural associations) and three national industry experts.1

1 The interviews ranged from a minimum of 30 min to a maximum of 2 h. Actors of the scene were askedinformation about the districts history, evolution, main characteristics and consequences; industry




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Besides convenience considerations (ease in physically reaching people involved in the

project and interviewees commitment to participate to the research), interviewees were

selected on the basis of their relevance and participation to the musical scene with an

attention to balance more famous actors with underground, independent ones (so as to

elicit a shared vision and take into account the possible nuances among different

actors). As far as policymakers are considered, the selection was based on a functional

and hierarchical basis, isolating those that were directly responsible for the development

of the main projects described below. The content of the interviews, in short, was aimed

to investigate the history of the district, with a particular emphasis on the co-evolution

of the local creative scene and the cultural public policies; the nature of the relationships

among districts actors before and after the implementation of specific policies; the

nature of the relationships between the districts actors and policymakers in general;

and the decisional and governance processes implemented with specific regard to the

musical projects and platforms (like, as will be shown in greater detail below,

PiemonteGroove).

In order to get complementary data and sometimes gain information about thepeople to be interviewed, we also carried out secondary sources analyses (e.g. official

documents, websites of local government authorities and cultural associations) both

before and after the interviews. Furthermore, the authors with the aid of two research

assistants attended some professional meetings and visited local sites and facilities to

gain a close, physical idea of the characteristics of the musical district.

In sum, our three stepped method (analysis of secondary sources, interviews and

observation) allowed us to triangulate data collected analysing our materials and

discussing provisional conclusions going back and forth from interview notes,

secondary data and participant notes (Eisenhardt, 1989; Pettigrew, 1990). The field

work was carried out between October 2005 and July 2006.

3.2. General context

Piedmont is an Italian geographical and administrative area (Regione) located in the

North-West of Italy. The region has the city of Turin as capital and reference point for

the musical activities. Turin and its province have 2.2 million inhabitants, while the

whole Piedmont has 4.5 million inhabitants.

Historically, Piedmont has been the background for the development of the modern

large industry in Italy, together with Lombardy. In particular, the FIAT transport

vehicles production plants were built in Turin, which still represent the largest industrial

group in Italy. While during the 60s and the 70s the industrial centres were faced with

the typical urban challenges related to the massive affluence of workers from other parts

of Italy and abroad, since the mid-80s they experiencedparticularly Turinan

intensive period of de-industrialization, similarly to other European cities like, for

example, Manchester and Bilbao. Local public authorities tried to respond to these

challenges using cultural policies as tools of urban renewal and labour re-conversion

from manufacturing to services. Consistently with the main findings of previous studies

(Garcia, 2005; Mommaas, 2004; Power and Hallencreutz, 2004), through the devel-

opment of culture-led policies Piedmont has effectively managed to contrast the decline

experts provided us information about the artistic goodness, national and international image and vitalityof the Piedmonts scene in comparison with other Italian areas.




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of a geographic area formerly centred on manufacturing firms (especially FIAT) and to

positively regenerate its image renewing its attractiveness. As showed in Table 1, local

public authorities succeeded in their effort towards transforming an industrial city like

Turin into a service-oriented economy.

Although the heavy crisis experienced by its more important company, FIAT, theeconomic indicators presented in Table 2 show that the region has experienced in the

last years an economic growth rate for some aspects (e.g. employment rate and poverty)

on average higher than Northern Italy. Furthermore, as also showed in Table 2,

Piedmont has been able to attract financial investments from outside (the ratio foreign

direct investments/GDP has increased of about 165% between 2000 and 2006) and

tourist flows, reaching its top in 2006 when Turin hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

3.3. The Piedmonts music scene

Local authorities have centred their culture-led development policy on contemporary

forms of creative expressions, and in particular on the development of a music district.

This was motivated by the fact that the region exhibited an impressive vitality in the

supply and demand of musical events, in particular pop music events (as opposed to

classical and jazz ones). Table 3 shows the number of classical, pop and jazz events

organized in Piedmont, Veneto and Puglia (these latter are two Italian regions similar to

Piedmont as to population).

It is possible to notice that, although the data present great variance in time,

Piedmont is characterized by a huge offer of pop music concerts. In 2006, in fact, the

number of pop music concerts was two times greater in Piedmont than it was in Veneto,

and six times greater in Piedmont than it was in Puglia. Furthermore, as displayed in

Table 4, Turin shows a good position in terms of demand of artistic and culturalproducts: for example, in Turin there are more arts and culture associations per 100,000

inhabitants than in Milan, Bari, Venezia and Napoli, and movie expenditures or tickets

sold, although smaller than in Bologna and Firenze, are next to those registered in

Milan and Rome (and over those registered in Bari, Venezia and Napoli).

Even more interesting is the fact that Piedmont has been home since the early 80s to a

very vibrant pop music scene, which has grown in number and relevance of projects

over the last decade, gaining increasing international attention. Most prominent acts of

the scene include internationally renown artists such as the Subsonica (M-Tv Music

Awards and several times gold record-winners), the Eiffel 65 (a widely exported

Piedmonts musical product, with more than 3 million copies sold only in the USA) andmany others. Tables 5 and 6 summarize the prominence of the districts artists.

Table 1. Piedmonts GDP disaggregated by sectors (data per millions of euro)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 %

Agriculture 1899.6 2083.9 2024.2 2023.6 2091.7 1578.6 1608.0 15.3%

Manufacturing 30,158.7 30,766.4 30,799.2 30,996.9 30,778.2 30,842.1 31,326.8 3.9%Services 55,950.2 58,978.8 61,851.8 65,140.4 69,312.0 70,986.0 73,176.0 30.8%

Total 88,008.5 91,829.0 94,675.2 98,160.9 102,181.9 103,406.6 106,110.8 20.6%

Source: ISTAT, Italian National Institute of Statistics.




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To get a snapshot of the districts dimensions, a query on the online mapping system

of Comune di Torino (Citta` di Torino, 2007) shows that approximately 900 professional

composers, musicians and producers of blues, jazz, pop, rock, folk/ethno and electronic

genres are active in Piedmont (classical and contemporary music composers and

performers are excluded from this figure). A close examination of figures related to the

record labels and publishers (see Table 7) also reveals a quite impressive vitality of thescene. Although suffering of the relative closeness to the most important Italian pop

Table 2. Main economic indicators: Piedmont and other important Italian regions

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 %

GDP per capitaa

Piedmont 23,360 24,233 24,916 25,575 26,340 26,520 27,316 16.9Lombardy 27,452 28,765 29,836 30,448 31,044 31,153 32,128 17.0

Veneto 24,842 25,742 26,108 26,957 27,982 28,286 29,225 17.6

Emilia-Romagna 26,849 27,778 28,378 28,739 29,287 29,722 30,626 14.1

Northern Italy 25,623 26,703 27,441 28,059 28,787 29,078 29,988 17.0

Foreign direct investments/GDP

Piedmont 1.5 0.6 1.4 0.8 1.1 5.7 4.1 165.7

Lombardy 1.6 3.0 2.2 2.3 1.5 0.3 1.1 34.3

Veneto 1.2 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.4 0.9 25.0

Emilia-Romagna 0.5 0.7 0.3 1.0 0.3 0.3 0.4 26.9

Northern Italy 1.2 1.5 1.2 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.4 19.1

Nights spent in hotels and other similar accommodations by non-residentsa

Piedmont 2219 2074 2297 2474 2439 2457 2669 3011 3440 55.0

Lombardy 7802 8409 7965 8668 9380 9657 10,031 10,299 10,925 40.0

Veneto 14,854 15,244 15,752 16,372 15,563 14,979 15,214 15,787 16,724 12.6

Emilia-Romagna 6317 6483 6628 6984 7302 7174 6753 6536 6700 6.1

Northern Italy 51,148 52,263 52,845 54,878 57,444 57,093 56,185 56,922 58,640 14.6

Rate of youth unemployment (1524 years)

Piedmont 24.7 20.5 18.7 12.8 12.6 13.4 15.8 16.9 15.5 38.0

Lombardy 17.1 15.4 13.6 10.8 11.5 11.3 12.7 13.0 12.3 40.3

Veneto 13.7 13.5 10.9 10.3 8.8 9.3 10.6 12.6 11.8 22.7

Emilia-Romagna 14.1 11.2 10.9 8.7 7.4 9.0 11.4 10.7 10.7 36.9

Northern Italy 17.7 15.6 13.7 11.1 10.9 11.2 12.6 13.2 12.4 39.2

Rate of employment

Piedmont 56.4 58.2 60.0 61.0 61.5 63.0 63.4 64.0 64.8 16.2

Lombardy 59.7 60.8 61.6 62.9 63.9 65.2 65.5 65.5 66.6 14.4

Veneto 59.6 60.5 62.1 62.8 63.2 64.8 64.3 64.6 65.5 13.0

Emilia-Romagna 64.2 65.7 66.9 67.5 68.6 69.5 68.3 68.4 69.4 11.6

Northern Italy 59.7 60.9 62.2 63.3 64.0 65.2 65.0 65.2 66.2 14.0

Population below poverty line

Piedmont 7.8 7.3 6.7 8.1 6.7 14.7

Lombardy 3.9 4.7 3.7 4.0 5.0 28.6

Veneto 3.9 4.2 5.0 4.9 5.0 27.5

Emilia-Romagna 5.0 4.8 3.5 2.9 4.0 20.4

Northern Italy 5.4 5.6 4.7 5.1 5.5 1.5

adata 1000.

Source: ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) and Eurostat.




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music centre, Milan,2 Piedmont shows an interesting concentration of independent

record labels and publishers, which number about 70, 26 of which headquartered in

Turin (Citta` di Torino, 2006; PiemonteGroove, 2006; Musica & Dischi Online

Database, 2007). A brief comparison with two other regions similar as to population,

Veneto and Puglia, confirms the vitality of the scene: Veneto, which is slightly bigger

than Piedmont and like Piedmont located in the North of Italy not far from Milan,

exhibits fewer firms in this business (62), while in Puglialocated in the South of Italy,

Table 3. Musical events in Piedmont 20002006: a comparison with Veneto and Puglia

Region Type of event 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Piemonte Classic music 782 898 955 854 860 823 835

Pop music 1249 2286 2197 1894 2046 2091 1990Jazz 140 242 204 228 345 263 349

Total musical events 2171 3426 3356 2976 3251 3177 3174

Veneto Classic music 1884 2270 2181 2193 2180 1762 1113

Pop music 805 1243 1355 1341 1246 1086 978

Jazz 159 220 274 250 250 257 220


Puglia Classic music 607 710 694 585 689 684 644

Pop music 293 350 332 390 473 355 354

Jazz 129 114 169 147 212 151 134


Source: Osservatorio dello Spettacolo SIAE, 20002006.

Table 4. Demand for artistic and cultural products in the major Italian region capitals

City

Metropolitan

area

population

Arts &

culture

associations

1991a

Arts &

culture

associations

2001a

Movie

expenditure

per inhabitant

1991 (Lire)

Movie

tickets per

inhabitant 2001

Milano 3,707,210 24.43 41.67 19,580 3.14Bologna 915,225 46.30 60.73 28,710 3.89

Torino 2,165,619 30.75 45.18 16,349 3.00

Firenze 933,860 73.31 97.97 22,357 3.62

Roma 3,700,424 46.18 61.78 17,814 3.72

Bari 1,559,662 23.75 27.05 6388 1.72

Venezia 809,586 20.58 41.61 11,522 2.16

Napoli 3,059,196 16.87 22.66 5083 1.19

Source: Amadasi and Salvemini (2005).aDivided by 100,000 inhabitants.

2 Turin is about 130 kilometres far from Milan, which is home for the major labels Italian subsidiaries.




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but with a renown musical traditionthere are less than the half of such firms

if compared to Piedmont (28). Regarding producers and labels, finally, Piedmont hosts

the headquarters of two of the largest and most active Italian independentrecord companies, namely Mescal Music (Montanari and Mizzau, 2007), specialized

Table 5. Performance of Piedmonts artistsa: permanence in a top 50 position in the Italian weekly hit

parade 20002007

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Subsonica10 weeks

Afterhours1 week

Subsonica22 weeks

Motel Connection3 weeks

P. Conte7 weeks

Afterhours7 weeks

Cisco 1week

Subsonica5 weeks

Marlene K.

8 weeks

Marlene K.

2 weeks

Afterhours

6 weeks

Subsonica

15 weeks

Gabry

Ponte 5 weeks

Modena City

Ramblers 10 weeks

Modena City

Ramblers 4 weeks

Marlene K.

4 weeks

Eiffel 65

14 weeks

Eiffel 65

4 weeks

Tozzi

17 weeks

C. Dona`

7 weeks

Subsonica

10 weeks

Subsonica

9 weeks

Gigi DAg.

14 weeks

Gigi DAg.

3 weeks

Gigi DAg.

8 weeks

Gabry Ponte

2 weeks

Marlene K.

14 weeks

Marlene K.

5 weeks

Marlene K.

1 week

U. Tozzi

1 week

P. Conte

6 weeks

P. Conte

5 weeks

Eiffel 65

15 weeks

P. Conte

13 weeks

Gigi DAg.

5 weeks

C. Dona`

6 weeks

M. Picotto

2 weeks

Africa Unite

1 week

P. Conte

11 weeks

U. Tozzi

2 weeks

P. Conte

6 weeks

Africa Unite

1 week

Africa Unite

4 weeks

Gabry Ponte

1 week

U. Tozzi

9 weeks

Linea 77

2 weeks

Africa Unite

1 week

Source: Musica & Dischi Online Database (2007).

aWe intend for Piedmonts artists those with a personal background in Piedmont or those produced by a label from

Piedmont.

Table 6. Piedmonts most famous artistsa: presence in a Billboard chart in the period 19992007 and total

weeks of presence in the Italian weekly hit parade

Artistb Billboard Chart/Awardc Total weeks of presence 20002007

Eiffel 65

1999 The Billboard 200 (# 4)

2000 Top Canadian Albums (# 5) 33

2000 Top Internet Albums (# 8)

Gigi DAgostino

2001 Heatseekers (# 44)

2001 Top Electronic Albums (# 9) 30

Marlene Kuntz 2005 European Top 100 Album

2007 European Top 100 Album 34

Paolo Conte 2003 Top World Music Albums (Peak # 12) 48

Subsonica 2005 European Top 100 Albums 71

Sources: www.allmusic.com; Musica & Dischi Online Database (2007).

aWe intend for Piedmonts artists those with a personal background in Piedmont or those produced by a label from

Piedmont.

bPiedmonts artist with at least one presence in Billboard chart, listed in alphabetical order.

cTop position reached in the respective charts in parenthesis (information not available for the European Top Albums

Chart).




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in indie- and alternative-rock productions, and Bliss Co., specialized in electronic genres

with a notable international exposure, and other actors very important in some sub-

genres. In addition, Piedmonts recording studios, rehearsal spaces and other recording

services consist of at least 85 firms, while in Veneto the same services number 32 and in

Puglia 13 (Citta` di Torino, 2006).

Table 8 shows the distribution of firms and workforce in some media industries for

some of the region capitals3 in Italy, in particular, Milan and Rome and the capitals of

the other Italian regions comparable with Piedmont as far as the population is

concerned (Dubini, 2006; Dubini and Raviola, 2006). Piedmont is home for the 8% of

the total recording audio-video services in Italy (third in the concentration index after

Lombardy [24%] and Emilia-Romagna [12%]), and for the 10% of the workforce in the

same sector (second after Lombardy37%and before Emilia-Romagna9%).4

Accordingly, the figures reported in Table 9 show how both localization (i.e. the

number of employees in a metropolitan area) and density (i.e. the number of firms with

respect to the metropolitan areas permanent population) of the recording audio/video

services in Turin are comparatively high among the other cities.

Although official data on revenues and employees is very hard to obtain,5 a recent

inquiry based on a sample of local music firms owners (Osservatorio Culturale del

Piemonte, 2006) show that Piedmonts recording labels range in number of full-timeemployees between 2 and 6, and in revenues between 50,000 Euro and 2.5 million Euro.

The target markets of the labels, as declared by their owners in the same inquiry,

Table 7. Data on musical activities in Piedmont

Type of activity Number Term of comparison

Professional musicians (composers and

producers included; classical andcontemporary art music excluded) 895

Record labels and publishers 70 Veneto: 62; Puglia: 28

Recording studios, rehearsal spaces and

other recording services 85 Veneto: 32; Puglia: 13

Management agents, promoters and live

show organizers 47 Veneto: 39; Puglia: 26

Venues for musical events 170

Other musical services (e.g. lighting and

audio services for live performance) 50 (Turin only)

Sources: Citta` di Torino (2006); PiemonteGroove (2006); Musica & Dischi Online Database (2007).

3 Verona and Padova, which are not region capitals, are also present in the table due to their size andrelevance in some of the media sectors.

4 In the other sectors, namely, cinema and radio/tv, Piedmont shows also a good vitality in particular asregards the workforce employed.

5 It is important to note that in the sector of independent music production, the structure of labourcontracts and collaborations is very flexible and loosely coupled (e.g. Gander and Rieple, 2004). This is a

reason why it is difficult to estimate the size of a musical district in terms of full time employees and otherclassical economic indicators.




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are mostly international, with few of them limiting to the national market, while the

average size of catalogue ranges about 50 and 60 titles.

Piedmonts music scene focuses on some niche genres, differentiating from the more

commercial, pop-rock oriented styles epitomized by artists signed by major labels. In

particular, Piedmont labels and publishers seem to be largely representative of the

Italian musicians in the electronic genre and its sub-genres. Interviews with actors of the

scene indicate that a good deal of the entire Italian electronic music production comes

from Piedmont, which is the only Italian area acknowledged also abroad as a vibrant

and innovative scene. They also suggest a curious relationship between the industrial

background of the area and the propensity to engage in electronic music production. Infact, they argue that the former may develop a positive attitude towards the noise of

Table 8. Distribution of firms and workforce in media industries

RegionRecording audio/video Cinema Radio & TV

N. firms

(%)

Workforce

(%)

N. firms

(%)

Workforce

(%)

N. firms

(%)

Workforce

(%)

Lombardia 24 37 18 19 23 22

Lazio 7 7 26 49 21 40

Veneto 6 5 6 4 6 3

Emilia Romagna 12 9 8 6 7 3

Piemonte 8 10 7 6 6 6

Puglia 5 7 3 2 4 2

Italy Total 1.750 5.000 11.326 27.000 12.812 34.000

Source: Dubini and Raviola (2006).

Table 9. Localizationa and densityb indexes of some of the major cities in Italy

City

Metropolitan area

population

Recording

audio/video localization index

Recording

audio/video density index

Milano 3,707,210 3.02 2.41

Bologna 915,225 1.38 1.71

Torino 2,165,619 1.55 1.44

Firenze 933,860 0.46 1.19

Verona 826,582 0.63 0.95

Roma 3,700,424 0.73 0.83

Padova 849,857 0.61 0.77

Bari 1,559,662 1.78 0.63

Venezia 809,586 0.37 0.56

Napoli 3,059,196 0.54 0.49

Source: Dubini and Raviola (2006).

aThe index is calculated as follows:

LocalizationEmployeesjr/Employeestr)/(Employeesjn/Employeestn), with j sector under analysis; tall industries;

rprovince under analysis; nall country. 1 is the value equalling the national concentration.

bDensityjr (Fjr/populationr)/(Fjn/populationn) (see previous note for legenda).




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the machines. This is recognizable also in the techno musics homeland, Detroit and

in the Madchester movement, representing the most innovative electronic British scene

of the last decades (see Brown et al., 2000).

According to the interviews, this focus on electronic music production is consistent

also with the attention devoted to new, innovative and contemporary forms of art by

local audiences, operators, sponsors and public authorities. The city of Turin, in fact,

hosts one of the most important Italian contemporary art fairs (Artissima), an

internationally renown contemporary art permanent institution (Fondazione Sandretto

Re Rebaudengo), and it is concerned with ambitious projects of restoration of some

decayed neighbourhoods (such as Porta Palazzo). According to the interviewees, this

has well favoured the electronic music scene, because of its experimental, stylistically

innovative and laboratory-based nature. Finally, since electronic music is, to a certain

extent, a prevalently independent-produced genre, the emergence of a peculiar

electronic scene could perfectly rely on a vibrating and interconnected network of

small-scale and independent actors (including electronic musicians and technicians,

deejays, clubs, etc.), while local presence of the majors is considered not necessary (oreven deleterious).

3.4. Public policies for music

It is now interesting to analyse the public policies and actions taken by local authorities

at different levels of local administration6 and aimed at the development and support of

the music district of Piedmont.

First of all, a fundamental role is played by the Creativity and Innovation Office, a

department of the Comune di Torino, which aims to promote, monitor and support

artistic activities and innovative projects of emerging artists in the fields of music, visualarts and cinema. This office manages since 1978 the Music Project, whose main goals

are the documentation, support and promotion of the local music scene, for social and

cultural aims. In 2000, an agreement with the Region of Piedmont extended the office

operations to a regional-wide scale. The Music Project strategy consists of providing

services undersupplied by private actors, with the final goal of stimulating a market for

them. For example, in the Eighties, emerging groups faced the absence of rehearsal

spaces; the Music Project arranged for every quarter of Turin to have its municipal

rehearsal room. Thanks to this action, musical activity of young people was enhanced

and consequently private actors, foreseeing a new sustainable and profitable market,

increased their supply.

One of the first activities carried out by the Music Project has been a mapping of allthe actors operating in the music field at any level, both professional and amateur, in

order to evaluate the extension and articulation of the local music scene. This effort led

to the construction of an archive, which enabled the office to activate a bi-directional

contact with every single actor registered. Since 1985, the office decided to publish a

series of guide books containing information and contacts of musicians and composers

(of every music genre), labels, rehearsal spaces, recording studios, associations and

6 The Italian administrative structure at a territorial level is made up of 20 Regions, 104 Provinces and 8100Comuni (municipal administrations).




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events, as well as live clubs, dj-sets and music websites. The deliberate aims were to

document and monitor the evolution of the local music scene, promote the scene to

external actors (e.g. potential audiences, national and international media, etc.), make

aware every actor of each other, and create synergies between the different musical sub-

systems of the region (e.g. pop and rock music, jazz, classical music and so on). Since

the edition of 2004, the database was made available online, becoming more accessible,

easy to be updated and searchable for specific information needs.

Probably, the actions more interesting to our aims are undertaken by the Regione

Piemonte. The Regione Piemonte is concerned with a twofold goal: on one hand,

supporting cultural activities for their own sake; on the other, sustaining local cultural

industries as fast-growing and economically relevant sectors of the regional economy,

and promoting the image of Piedmont itself.

First of all, departments dedicated to sustaining musical activities not only grant

public financing, but also aim at constituting a stable system of relationships between

different local public authorities and musical actors, connecting their activities and

putting them together in an organic project, in order to enhance their potential andpromote the diffusion of music culture. Actions directed to these objectives include the

project Piemonte dal Vivo, which started in 1996 and organizes live festivals

characterized by the contamination of different artistic genres, such as music, theatre

and cinema; the regional music circuit Piemonte in Musica, which started in 1984 and

pursues to facilitate the matching between the supply of local orchestras and the

demand of local institutions.

However, the most innovative intervention of the Regione Piemonte concerned the

creation in 2002 of PiemonteGroove, a community network-based project specifically

directed at the electronic music scene of Piedmont and entirely publicly funded. The

idea of a joint project for the support and promotion at the national and international

levels of the Piedmont electronic music scene was originally proposed by the cultural

association Situazione Xplosiva to officers of the Regione Piemonte, who approved it

obtaining dedicated European Union funding. The interview with the responsible of the

project by Regione Piemonte revealed how PiemonteGroove was seen by public

authorities as an excellent opportunity to present the new regional points of excellence

to the world and to associate a fresh and innovative image to the region, usually

identified, in the perception of tourists, foreign investors and other relevant actors,

either with the old-industrial landscape, or with the gastronomic specialties of the

countryside. The final aim was to align the perceived public image of the region with the

real developments achieved in the last years by Piedmont, and Turin in particular in this

sense: for example, the vivacity of the artistic and musical scenes, the excellence andprestige of artistic institutions such as Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the rich

citys nightlife. Some related initiatives were organized also in parallel with the 2006

Winter Olympic Games, while other regarded vast urban renovation intervention in

several quarters of Turin, often with the provision of cultural and artistic venues or

activities.

At the beginning of the project, a Committee of journalists, deejays and music experts

mapped out the actors of the electronic scene, selecting 32 artists and 20 organizations,

mainly music promotion companies, live clubs and recording labels/publishers. In 2004,

the network was extended to 56 artists and 30 firms. Since the beginning, the

project comprised artists with different kind of popularity and playing different genres.The promotion activities granted to all network members the participation to the




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periodic production of a compilation, the setting up of a website platform containing

useful information on activities, contacts and related news for every single member, the

joint presentation and promotion of the network at the international level through the

participation to the main specialized fairs and festivals in Europe (e.g. Sonar Barcelona,

MIDEM Cannes, Amsterdam Dance Event). The international activities are aimed at

promoting the Piedmonts scene as a whole, giving the opportunity to benefit from this

enlarged visibility also to those members who otherwise would not have had the

possibility to participate to international events. On the other hand, the most well-

renowned artists (e.g. Mauro Picotto and Eiffel 65) actively participate to the activities

of the community, improving in this way the reputation of the whole network. This

kind of cross-promotional action proves to work well, as network members

interviewed declare that about 10 members effectively operate abroad at the time of

the interviews, whereas at the beginning only two or three of them were doing so.

Moreover, different interviewees agree that Piedmont is now internationally recognized

as a prominent electronic and dance music scene.

Interviews conducted with some of the network members also reveal other importantgoals achieved. First, although before the creation of PiemonteGroove there was a

perception of an active electronic scene or ferment, it was impossible to determine the

whos who of it, namely what was each actor actually doing. In this sense,

PiemonteGroove contributed to a better reciprocal awareness of the scene, giving rise to

many collaborations and partnerships between different actors, previously unaware of

the existence of each other. Interviews reveal also the kind of relationships existing

between the scenes operators and the regional governors, policy makers and executives.

According to them, the project lines were shared from the beginning between the two

macro-actors, and the good functioning and development of the project has been

essentially due to two reasons: first, the acknowledgement by the policy makers of theexistence and vitality of the electronic music scene in Piedmont; and second, the

propensity of the policy makers to the experimentation of new forms of art and media.

As a proof of that, musical operators interviewed declare that, quite surprisingly, the

project has also been well received by the most counter-institutional actors of the scene,

who joined in enthusiastically. Finally, the project has been taken as a best practice by

other regions in Italy (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna), whose officers have decided to

organize some forums with the heads of the project at Regione Piemonte in order to

acquire their specific knowledge for this kind of interventions.

4. Discussion

The analysis of the Piedmonts case highlighted several interesting elements, which

could stimulate the theoretical discussion about how and why certain public policies

could be effective in developing cultural district.

First of all, the analysis highlights how the effective public policy adopted by local

authorities has been based on a finely tuned balance between more spontaneous and

organic actions and more planned governmental initiatives. While in some cases the

initiative came from the government (like in the case of the Music Project), in others

operators from the scene expressed their needs and requests to government officers (like

in the case of the PiemonteGroove project). In both cases, a thorough and constantdialogue between the parts have been beneficial, so that public strategies were not




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imposed from the authorities but shared and negotiated with actors from the scene.

Such result is consistent with the idea that more bottom-up intervention strategies are

likely to be more effective (e.g. Brown et al., 2000; Hitters and Richards, 2002), and

suggests, thus, that local governments should better shift their strategy from a

monument logic to a movement one, that is, public investments have not to be aimed

at creating spectacular and impressive actions, but, rather, at favouring the

development of autonomous collaborative relationships among district participants

through the setting up of a community-based platform.

Other recent Italian experiences seem to confirm the idea that top-down policies are

more likely to be ineffective and a waste of public resources. For example, at the

beginning of 2000 the Comune of Milan decided to invest relevant resources in

the restoration of a huge ex-industrial space in order to create a creative rehearsal

(La fabbrica del vapore), in which local creative were supposed to meet and to develop

their activities. Such initiative has been developed without creating a strong participating

process, and as a result, after about 8 years the results achieved are very poor, due also to

counter-institutional behaviours deployed by the most prominent local artists.Secondly, our analysis points out another interesting result regarding the relevance of

the linkage between public policies and the characteristics of the local context.

According to our results, public policies seem to be more effective when aimed at

developing a cultural district strongly embedded in the local geographic, social and

cultural context.

Such embeddedness could be deployed in different ways. For example, as the case of

Piedmont shows, public policies should be focused on exploiting pre-existent germs

i.e. all those cultural and social elements that characterize a peculiar geographical area

and constitute a potential foundation for the development of a cultural district. In other

words, public policies could increase their effectiveness when aimed not at creating

cultural districts from scratch, but rather at developing an already existing local artistic

sceneeven if small. This does not mean necessarily that there must be an already well-

developed artistic scene, but that a cultural district needs a fertile, endogenous creative

humus, that cannot be provided only by the intervention of public institutions.

Differently, investing money in restructuring post-industrial places, organizing events

and festivals and promoting a new image could be just a waste of public resources. For

example, at the beginning of 2000 the Italian Government in collaboration with local

authorities tried to develop a film production district in Terni, a formerly industrial city

situated in Umbria. While the goals had been very similar to Piedmonts ones

(managing the transition toward a service-oriented economy), results achieved have

been very poor. One of the main reasons for such a failure could be traced in the totalabsence of a local tradition in film making.

Further germinal elements that have to be taken into consideration by local

governments in order to create a cultural district with strong foundations in the local

context could be a strong sensibility towards kinds of arts and cultural events parti-

cularly diffused in the place, a cultural legacy between the urban environment and

the artistic and cultural forms of expression (such as, in the case of Piedmont, the indus-

trial landscapes which developed a positive attitude towards electronic music), the pro-

pensity to re-interpret in innovative forms the local cultural tradition, and, also,

the physical presence of ex-industrial spaces which could be transformed into new cul-

tural venues (see also Sacco and Pedrini, 2003; Mommaas, 2004; Santagata, 2004). In allthese cases, an adequate focus on cultural and social elements that characterize a




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peculiar geographical area could increase the linkage between the cultural district and

its social, economic and cultural context, enhancing, thus, also the commitment and

the participation of the local community.

Literature on authenticity (Peterson, 1997; Jones et al., 2005; Svejenova, 2005) can

help us understand better this phenomenon. Authenticity represents a cultural

industries peculiar feature and one of the principal motives they are able to attract

attendance (Peterson, 1997). What the term authenticity means is still debated in

literature, as there is not a definition generally accepted (Beverland, 2005). On the one

hand, authenticity could be considered intrinsic to an object (Postrel, 2003); on the

other, authenticity could derive from consumers and creators actions in imparting

authenticity to objects (Peterson, 1997; Holt, 1998; Lewis and Bridger, 2001). As a

result, as noted also by several authors (MacCannel, 1976; Peterson, 1997; Holt, 2002),

authenticity could be often more contrived than real. For example, some studies about

luxury winemakers show how some small and specialist firms claim to be authentic by

strategically developing their image in the industry and describing themselves as small

artisans that use natural ingredients and time honoured ways of production (Delacroixet al., 1989; Carroll and Swaminathan, 2000; Beverland, 2005). While this image may

have some sincere aspects, authenticity could be often fabricated (Hobsbawm and

Ranger, 1983; Ulin, 1995; Guy, 2002). According to Peterson (1997, 6), authenticity is

continuously negotiated in an ongoing interplay between industry stakeholders and

its meaning is manufactured through various processes. In the cultural industries,

in fact, how audiences appreciate different cultural products often depends on their

appearance of authenticity; however, such aspect of authenticity is often not natural,

but is fabricated through specific practices and actions (Peterson, 1997; Peterson and

Anand, 2004).

Furthermore, authenticity could be also interpreted as a social phenomenon, since

the characteristics of the sector in which cultural products are created, distributed and

evaluated could shape their symbolic elements (Peterson and Anand, 2004; Delmestri

et al., 2005). Social aspects of authenticity could regard the role of social networks

among industry actors, industry dynamics, and how cultural products and artists are

anchored in national or local systems of meaning (Jones et al., 2005). Such anchorage

could play a relevant role in affecting the authenticity of a cultural product by evoking a

geographical areas heritage and historical traditions. In the European film markets, for

instance, local productions represent the only movies able to compete with Hollywood

blockbusters, because of their ability to differentiate themselves from mainstream US

movies, by nurturing local artistic genres and addressing themes more relevant for

the local audiences (Delmestri, et al., 2005). Since, as we said before, the semblance ofauthenticity could be created through specific practices, such social anchorage could be

also the result of a deliberate strategy. This is apparent in case of the production and

marketing of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy described by Jones and Smith (2005),

who show how the movie was marketed as a local New Zealand product even though it

was based on an English novel and financed by a Hollywood Major.

Therefore, drawing on previous studies on the social nature of authenticity, we could

argue that the more cultural and symbolic production centres, such as cultural districts,

are anchored in a local geographic, social or cultural context, the more they could be

able to evoke local heritage, traditions and attachment to a place, increasing, thus, their

potential of appreciation. In other words, public policies could increase theireffectiveness when focused on creating an authentic cultural district, in that it creates




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unique and recognizable cultural products perceived as an authentic expression of a

geographical area.

The analysis of the Piedmonts music scene shows how local policy-makers properly

managed to favour the emergence of a cultural cluster that local and external audiences

perceived as really authentic, by nurturing existing local cultural germs. For example,

they focused public investments on creating a music district specialized in the electronic

music (and its sub-genres). Such decision enhanced the perceived authenticity of the

creative district, because it was consistent with the strong industrialization processes

that have characterized the regional historyand with the fact that, as we said before,

there seem to be a relationship between the industrial background of an area and the

propensity to engage in electronic music production (see also Brown et al., 2000).

Furthermore, public interventions were consistent with the abundant availability of

ex-industrial venues, which represent the ideal stages for live electronic performances,

and a generally diffused attention to new, innovative and contemporary forms of art.

The ultimate goal of public policies was to transform Turin in a city-laboratory for

electronic music, with a strong attention also to the contamination between differentforms of artistic expression, representing, thus, a sort of re-interpretation of the

historical role of avantgarde that Turin (and Piedmont) used to play in the history of

Italy. As a final result, according to experts interviewed, the local scene is the only

Italian area acknowledged abroad as a vibrant and innovative electronic music scene,

and local musical products seem to be clearly distinguishable from the outcomes of

other districts, demonstrating how the peculiar musical atmosphere of Piedmont is

clearly recognized by external consumers and operators.

However, if it seems to be important that a districts activities have to be embedded in

and related to the broader social and cultural context, how is it possible to understand

and exploit the peculiar creative germs of a geographical area? In other words, what

are the steps required for transitioning a local artistic scene into an economically

beneficial cultural district?

First of all, local policy-makers have to take proper actions in order to recognize and

understand such germs of their local cultural scene. This goal could be achieved

through a close mapping and monitoring of all artistic movements active in the local

scene (Sacco and Pedrini, 2003; Power and Scott, 2004). In the case of Piedmont, all

local administrative bodies (Regione, Provincia and Comune) managed to undertake this

essential first task, with the effect to better calibrate their intervention, and improving

the inner social dynamics of the district, with the enhancement of the reciprocal

awareness among music operators, which, in turn, gave rise to new collaborations.

Consistently, as illustrated by the Piemonte Groove project, local authorities have toimplement interventions aimed at increasing the internal and external awareness of the

scene, making possible the development of trust and collaborative attitudes between

members and helping the network to reach a critical mass dimension in order to

compete on global markets. Internal awareness, as we saw, can increase the potential

for collaborations, putting in contact different, previously not interconnected actors,

and creating (real and virtual) places for exchange of information and knowledge.

External awareness may be developed through the construction of a sort of brand

identity (Mommaas, 2004), which grants visibility to all the members of the community

(including the smallest ones) and the achieving of economies of scale in the access to

external linkages or global pipelines of music distribution (Power and Hallencreutz,2004; Bathelt, 2005). As shown in the case, the presence in the network of the most




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famous local musicians acting as brands or markers of quality (Power and

Hallencreutz, 2004) results in the association, in the minds of consumers and operators,

between Piedmonts electronic music and a quality product.

Finally, local governments should intervene through investments in heavy infra-

structures; however, if such investments could be important (especially in the early

stages), they are not sufficient for the sustainability of a cultural district. I

j econ geogr-2008-mizzau-651-73

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