ABSTRACT
An important debate on the role of creativity and culture as factors of local economic development has been enriched by new suggestions (Storper and Scott 2009), which mainly concern the issues of innovation and creativity (Pratt and Jeffcutt 2009). Formerly, culture was basically considered as a good to preserve, and only afterwards as a possible gain, if properly advanced in itself and from an economic point of view (Towse 2003). At present, the focal point of the debate is on culture’s capacity to produce knowledge and so the attention has shifted to innovative processes, human capital and creative cities and industries (Belussi and Staber 2011). A new phase in the development of the relationship between culture and economy has thus opened, which overcomes that of economic enhancement of culture, putting innovation and creativity at the centre.
