Assessing the Role of Cultural Resources as a Key Product for Socio-Economic Development

Post-industrial, knowledge societies need Culture! The various types of culture represent a multidimensional asset largely underestimated, with an extremely powerful potential for socioeconomic growth which is unfortunately still very far from being fully expressed. In this paper, organizational models and technological solutions are proposed as key factors for enabling full expression of an asset that could positively affect several aspects of our life. In fact, if intelligently managed, Culture can provide: • High quality content: the proliferation of new media, like 3g mobile phones or pay TVs, is generating digital spaces that need to be filled with useful and appealing contents. • Socio-economic development: many of the poorest countries host amazing heritage resources that could attract tourists. Cultural tourism is a segment that shows signs of growth all over the world. • Cross-cultural integration: culture is extremely effective for helping people from different areas of this planet in better understanding each other. • Identity building: with the emerging working model based on “boundaryless careers”, it is vital to invest on Culture for building one’s own existential, social, and professional identity. Among the different branches that compose the Culture, it has been chosen to concentrate on the cultural heritage for its intrinsic multidimensional value and its tight connections with one of the leading world industries: the tourism. However, a careful management and wide dissemination of Culture would enhance the fundamental resources of nations. These resources can be organised in two categories of capital: • Human Capital. That is: promoting the creativity of individuals. We define as “creative” sectors like arts, fashion, design, architecture, but also the research of innovation, be it scientific, economic, or technological. • Territorial Capital. That is the territory, its history, landscape, traditions, craftsmanship, and typical products. The Cultural Heritage obviously belongs to this category. The implementation of carefully designed organisational configurations and wisely customised technological solutions can provide the foundations required for allowing the heritage sector in obtaining its right place in the socio-economic scenario. The core issue of this framework is to identify the source of value, that will soon be the main, for cultural heritage institutions that interact with the public, directly or indirectly: the final user.