Cultural policies and local development: theory and practices

The aim of this work study is to emphasize the need and urgency to for innovation in cultural governmental policies. Innovation is necessary because new technologies have fundamentally altered the production processes, giving giving new and more importance to intangible elements and thus necessitating enhanced policy innovation. Global competitiveness has increased for those activities which incorporate research and creativity. In this context, and from an economic point of view, the cultural and creative activities play an increasingly important role - both intrinsically, itself and for their impact on other industries. Indeed economic theory has begun to rethink the development processes and global competition, taking into account intangible factors. The policies, and in particular cultural ones, must therefore follow suit, because cultural and creative activities actively contribute defining the conditions in terms of human capital and creativity, for a «smart» and sustainable territorial development. Some drawn from practical experiences show that cultural policies, whichthat have actively supported the innovations of processes and products, have also had positive effects on local economies.