ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that a number of sustainability and managerial problems emerging in cultural policy networking can be better understood if connected to urban development processes and the related economic interests. It focuses on a case of joint cultural programming by seven municipalities that compose the so-called Northern Milanese subregion belonging to the first belt of Milanese hinterland. Historically, the primary interest and research conducted in the field of urban and regional governance and policy making has focused on large cities or metropolitan regions. Analysis of cultural policy making in other areas in the core of the Milanese metropolitan region showed similar criticalities regarding the coupling between real estate development projects. Since the 2000s, the creation of cultural facilities in small and medium-sized cities sometimes depended on the resources that were made available in urban regeneration processes in postindustrial brownfields and areas.
