Cartographies of the possible, a new governance of cultural heritage
The book proposes participatory management and overcomes the opposition between public and private. Freely downloadable with a map of good practices
The clear distinction between the management of cultural heritage, exercised either directly by the public or, alternatively, indirectly by the private sector, according to an economicist and utilitarian vision, has now exhausted its function and is ready to be archived. First the 1993 Ronchey law, which introduced additional services to the public, then the 2004 Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code, which sanctioned the distinction between the two forms of management and, in a certain sense, also their opposition, reflect a worldview that has now been superseded by bottom-up cooperation and the introduction of innovative legislative instruments.
A viable bottom-up alternative
"Cartographies of the Possible. Culture, participatory governance and co-operation for new civic institutions", the special issue of the magazine Economia della Cultura (Il Mulino), edited by Giovanna Barni, CoopCulture's Innovation delegate councillor, offers readers an innovative perspective on participatory management of cultural heritage, presenting three complementary, and not alternative, models. The community cooperative, the special public-private partnership and the territorial network declined in the organisational form of the Destination Management Organisation (DMO) are the particularly effective answers to build democratic, equitable and multi-level territorial governance, capable of operating on different scales and generating lasting development, while helping to stem depopulation and the flight of young people from many areas of the country.
This volume was produced as part of the PNRR CHANGES, Cultural Heritage Active Innovation for Sustainable Society research project, which involved a wide network of universities and private partners, and is available for download in open access from the Rivisteweb. It is proposed as a comprehensive theoretical guide, enriched by a national mapping of good practices, and offers useful operational indications for structuring the efficient management of a cultural project in a sustainable way. A new syntax of participatory management is outlined in the book, which makes it possible to go beyond redundant and outdated words such as valorisation, promotion and fruition, by now stiffened in a tired rhetoric and often mechanically repeated out of turn by politicians and culture councillors.
The trigger is the moment, almost anarchic, in which the dialogue between the parties is activated: it is the start of the relationship, the phase of opening and listening, of removing physical and symbolic barriers, of constructing inclusive narratives capable of making communities recognise cultural places. The trigger, however, runs the risk of running aground and being thwarted without the graft, i.e. the construction of relational and institutional infrastructures capable of guaranteeing duration, stability and organisational continuity, with recognised and complementary roles and responsibilities, and with an effective legal and institutional capacity to cooperate. Participatory governance, therefore, is based on a balance between these two components: a dynamic and sometimes fragile balance.
Geography of Good Practices
The selected good practices, which can be viewed on the interactive national map of the ArcGIS platform, show 58 Special Public-Private Partnerships, 101 Community Cooperatives and 148 DMOs structured in the form of a network, in which 3,252 municipalities are involved, accounting for about half of the national total. PSPPs (Special Public-Private Partnerships) are widespread throughout the country, but with an uneven distribution. In fact, the partnerships are concentrated above all in the intermediate territories and in the inland areas of the Apennine ridge, particularly in the Centre and South, while they are more fragmented in the North and less present in the large urban and tourist centres. The map shows a higher concentration in central Italia, in particular in Umbria, Marche, inland Lazio and Abruzzo.
Cultural Community Cooperatives show a wide presence but strongly linked to inland, hill and mountain areas, often marked by marginality and depopulation. Their presence is more developed in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata and Calabria. Participated DMOs, on the other hand, are concentrated above all in the Centre-North, where there are greater organisational capacities, coordination between actors and a more solid tradition of integrated tourism governance, while their presence in the South is much more scarce.
The activities in which they work are Art, Culture, Archaeology, Food and Wine, Nature and Tourism, Wellness and Relaxation, and a combination of one or more sectors. In reality, it is difficult to pigeonhole a small reality into a single area, also because these structures often represent the operational arm of municipal administrations and deal not only with the activities indicated in the volume, but also with maintenance and cleaning services, transport and welfare. The cultural vocation is the predominant activity in 86.2% of the selected partnerships. Community Cooperatives, on the other hand, carry out at least two activities in 40.6% of cases and three in 35.6%, often combining culture, tourism and food and wine. Territorial networks and DMOs, by their very nature, present in 74% of the cases a combination of activities that goes beyond the areas indicated and also extends to trade, crafts and transport.
For those wishing to delve deeper, the platform provides a detailed description of the individual realities identified in the sample, enabling them to deepen their mission and vocation, as well as to place them within a specific territorial context. The book also dwells on the problem of the economic sustainability of these realities, where often services such as tickets, didactics and guided tours do not produce a self-sustainable income, but must be read as instruments for the dissemination of culture that go well beyond their monetary value. The creation of models capable of self-sustainability in inland areas is almost impossible, as they often lack adequate visitor flows, sufficient volumes of trade and sufficient spending capacity to ensure their sustainability. There is therefore a clear need for public intervention through forms of support spread throughout the territory. The text, Barni emphasises, "maps and analyses three models that render an invisible infrastructure of participation and subsidiarity for heritage as a common good. They highlight similar features such as: the activation of the plural and participatory dimension; the cooperative approach so that communities, businesses and institutions can share responsibility for fair and sustainable development; and the fact that they are already widespread throughout the country, including inland areas and lesser-known places, where other public cultural headmasters are absent. It is necessary to promote, incentivise and support them as the National Plan for the Social Economy wants'.
The study poses a crucial challenge to those who do not believe in the ability of inland areas and small realities to develop; at the same time, it offers concrete and valid proposals to those who want to do cultural and social enterprise.
