The Cultural District as a Driver of Local Development : Design and Implementation Experiences in the Lombardy Region

The essay aims to introduce some relevant questions arising from experiences in designing three cultural districts in the Lombardy Region, in Italy. After a brief summary of the main characteristics of the three projects, developed in different territorial areas, the essay addresses reflections to the following issues: integration, participation and networking; human resources and capacitation; the production of territorial values and their assessment. In the final part a brief discussion will be given on a possible integration of cultural districts with other territorial development bodies and policies