CULTURE AND CREATIVITY IN THE TERRITORIAL LOCAL SYSTEMS. TALES IN SEARCH FOR A THEORETICAL SCHEME

The paper is organised as follows: after this Introduction, in Section 2, we reconstruct the theoretical debate on the function of knowledge and creativity in places. Section 3 attempts to depict the role of cultural institutions within the theoretical model of territorial local systems, clarifying ways in which we can fruitfully combine such concepts as «culture» and «creativity» with the geographical perspective, paying attention to the territories’ capability of behaving as collective actors. This section, along with Section 4, describes the mechanisms of the «knowledge circuit» as factors of urban and regional development, and provides an interpretative scheme for the analysis of the case-studies of Biella (Italy) and Saint-Etienne (France).