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Abstract
A recent contribution to the regional/local development is the regional development platform (RDP), a tool of local policy and governance meant for the planning and implementation of a regional innovation system (RIS) with a sustainable and long-lasting competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on local economic development through platforms of regional development, offering some specific cases in which the RDP model is developed not only as a top-down policy tool in support of innovation, but also as a bottom-up governance tool for the relationships among cognitively related industries. We introduce the case of an art and food platform in Maremma (south of Tuscany, Italy), where the related-variety approach is mainly focused on cross-fertilization among related and unrelated resources and sectors and is specifically applied to a rural area.
Acknowledgements
A previous version of this work was presented at the 2008 EUNIP Conference in San Sebastian, Spain. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the participants of this conference for their helpful comments. A previous version was published as a working paper (Lazzeretti et al., Citation2008). The authors also wish to thank the editors of this special issue for their comments and suggestions.
Notes
Studies of the relationship between creativity and cross-fertilization have usually made reference to urban settings (Florida, Citation2002), but recently the emergence of a high degree of rural creativity has also been underlined (Rushton, Citation2007; Cooke, Citation2009b).
The quality of life is measured by a set of indicators: per capita income, employment, environment, health services, crimes, education, leisure time (Il Sole 24 Ore, Citation2008).
A “museum system” is a model of governance—that works sharing human, technical, economic and organizational resources—for the coordinated and integrated management of museums and of the pattern of relations they entertain with diverse local subjects, by means of inter-institutional agreements.
The model for this trend sees an important winemaker family (like Antinori, Frescobaldi, etc.) who develops a peculiar image policy together with world-renowned architects (like Renzo Piano, Piero Sartogo, Michael Bolle, etc.).
The Maremma temples are: “Castelgiocondo” at Montalcino, “Tenuta dell'Ammiraglio” at Magliano of the Frescobaldi family, “Rocca di Frassinello” at Gavoranno, “Campo di Sasso” at Bolgheri of the Antinori family, “Ca” Marcanda' at Bolgheri, and finally “Cairossa” in the Cecina Valley (see Templi del vino firmati dai big, La Repubblica, 25 September 2007, p. 9).
In this respect, in 2003 Populonia and the Isle of Elba were awarded with the Historical Landmark Designation, established in 1969 “to identify permanently the many sites and events that have played a prominent part in the discovery, development and growth of metals and metalworking. In 1987, the scope of this award broadened to include all engineered materials” (http://www.asminternational.org).
This product is obtained by the ovarian sac of female mullets, which is pulled out, left in salt and dried.
The two most important gardens were created by two foreign artists, the Swiss Daniel Spoerri and the French Niki de Saint Phalle.
The Tuscany region intends to use the RDP also as a strategic tool for the promotion and support of innovation and technology transfer. In fact in its last call, it explicitly refers to the concept of “platform” for its future policies.
We refer to the new emerging phenomenon of the green economy, which has a strong potential in rural areas (Cooke, Citation2009b).
We refer here to the concept of “public space” by Lester and Piore Citation(2004), which underlines the importance of informal settings as public spaces liable of creating a fruitful environment for the pursuit of ideas and innovations. Public spaces, in this sense, are ideal for putting together the strategic subjects who may concur to the building up and designing of platforms. A convivial setting, in fact, makes an environment creative; the case of the Art and food platform is a good example in this respect.