Museums as Societal Engines for Urban Renewal. The Event Strategy of the Museum of Natural History in Florence

Abstract

The paper aims to contribute to the debate on urban renewal, departing from the so-called Bilbao effect. Focusing on the resurgence of a societal function of cultural heritage, we discuss the idea of the museum as a societal engine through a case study. Although the literature has been mainly dedicated to assessing the economic impact of large art museums in former industrial regions, the paper focuses on a small scientific museum, the Museum of Natural History in Florence, and on its strategy of social enhancement through the organization of small- and medium-sized cultural events in the historical city centre. Through the application of social network analysis to 17 temporary exhibitions between 2000 and 2012 and the analysis of 790 events divided into three macro-areas (relations with territory, educational networks and scientific networks), the role played by the museum, the density and variety of events will be investigated. The resulting picture is that of a proactive museum located at the centre of a network of—mostly local—institutional actors that have effectively contributed to the re-vitalization of scientific knowledge and education as well as relations with the citizenship and the territory, therefore representing a valuable example of a societal enhancement of culture.     

Density Dependent Dynamics in the Arezzo jewellery district (1947–2001): Focus on foundings

With this paper, the purpose is to test new theoretical and empirical tools to explain the deep changes that Italian industrial districts are experiencing. This issue is addressed by means of the evolutionist-multidisciplinary approach, and a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Reliance is on the theoretical background of organizational ecology, and particularly on the theories of density-dependence. The focus of study is therefore: (a) the internal structure of district organization-forms and (b) their evolution, which means moving from a structural to a process-dynamic perspective. Drawing upon the seminal work of Hannan, Freeman and Carroll, their insights into the traditional conceptualization of Marshallian industrial districts as defined by Becattini are investigated. The paper analyses the evolution of the Arezzo jewellery industrial district according to the HEDRON methodology over the period 1947–2001 and investigates the firms' vital processes at a community level by grouping organizational populations into three multi-populations (complete-cycle, subcontractor, and trade and instrumental goods). The data used to reconstruct life histories was collected from the Firms Directory (Registro ditte) of the Arezzo Chamber of Commerce: in total, more than 34,000 records were considered, including 3610 foundings and 1618 failures.     

Currents,visions and voyages: historical geographies of the sea

This paper offers a prospectus for a version of historical geography that puts the seas and oceans at the centre of its concerns. This is pursued in three ways. First, via a discussion of the epistemological and historiographic perspectives that might be taken on geographies of the sea, which argues that the view from the ocean can develop geographies of spaces beyond the local and the national, and can attend to the relationships between the human and natural worlds. Second, through a consideration of the imaginative, aesthetic and sensuous geographies of the sea that contends that maritime worlds open up new experiential dimensions and new forms of representation. Finally, in a survey of the material and social worlds of the oceans that suggests that new life can thereby be breathed into current concerns with global political economy, material geographies, the relationship between knowledge and located practice, and the intersections of social and spatial difference. The paper also provides an introduction to a special issue on the historical geography of the sea.     

Reasons for Clustering of Creative Industries in Italy and Spain

Creative industries and creative employment tend to concentrate around medium and large cities, forming creative local systems. We follow a multidisciplinary approach, based on cultural and creative economics, evolutionary geography and urban economics, in order to analyse the forces behind the clustering of employment in creative industries in a comparative analysis of Italy and Spain. The results show different patterns of clustering of creative employment in both countries. The historical and cultural endowments, the average size of creative industries, the size of the place, the productive diversity, and the concentration of human capital and creative class have been determined to be common factors leading to a concentration of creative firms and creative employment in both countries.     

Spatial Spillovers and Employment Dynamics in Local Tourist Systems in Italy (1991–2001)

Tourism has been an important main industry in the world economy for many decades. While its importance is recognized, the study of the reasons why some tourist destinations expand and grow faster than others as well as the main factors affecting these dynamics is underdeveloped. The aim of this paper is to analyse the factors affecting the long-period occupational dynamics of the Italian local tourist system, taking into consideration the existence of spatial spillovers. For instance, with other considerations being equal, tourist systems that are close to localities with a high growth rate in fact tend to be more developed. The opposite is true for localities with low-growth neighbouring systems. This paper therefore provides an interesting perspective on the development of tourism-dependent regions, in light of tourism being one of the most important economic sectors and yet the least explored within a regional development framework.