The network of the cultural and creative system in the City of Cagliari

In the last decades, growing interest for the cultural sectors within the debate over the creative economy (Santagata 2007), where cities play a pivotal role (Florida, 2002). The debate has emphasized how the provision of urban services supporting the diffusion of a creative cultural atmosphere, supports the activation of innovative processes of cultural production which may have positive effects in a number of areas: from urban regeneration, to the well-being and health of citizens, from equality and social cohesion to the education and training of young people, thus benefiting both workers in the sector, as well as tourists and citizenship, favouring sustainable forms of local development (Giuliani 2018; Pais and Provasi 2015). The debate calls local authorities to confront with a more proactive role in the definition of the new policy tools to attract creative talents and unleash the capacity for innovation and cultural production of their territories (OECD, 2018). In Italy, cultural production often praised as one of the main (present and potential) resources for the development of the Country, however, still marginal role of innovative strategies and sound investments in the sector (Fondazione Symbola Unioncamere 2019), although gradually increasing attention. Historical bias for a policy approach oriented towards the conservation of cultural heritage, more than of cultural production and innovation (Santagata, 2007). Available data (Istat, INPS ex ENPALS, ASIA, Registro RACLI, SIAE) confirm the pivotal role of the system of cultural production of Cagliari within the Sardinian region. The research project was drafted by the UniCa research team, cofinanced by the DPSS (UniCa) and the Department of Culture (Municipality of Cagliari), the latter interested to an updated mapping of the system of cultural production in the city. Until recently, this type of mapping could represent a relatively simple, bureaucratic operation, listing the different production sites (theatres, cinemas, libraries, museums, etc.) associated to a distinct type of production and audience, but today, processes of cultural declassification and hybridization require to define cultural production in a more fluid way, intertwining different styles, languages, operators and audiences. The main goal of the research was to mapping of the different organizations constituting the universe of artistic and cultural production in Cagliari (both as the main site or recipient of their production), identification of their different weight, in terms of artistic and economic production. To understand their organizational logic, both at the individual level as well as at the systemic level, we proceeded to analyze the networks of the strategic patterns of cooperation, with private and public institutions and with other organizations, in different fields and at different territorial level (local, national and international level). We use a mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative analysis) (Arcidiacono, 2017), and a questionnaire with a section dedicated to the reconstruction of collaboration networks through a set of “name generator” questions. This is an analysis still in progress, in which we have reconstructed the collaboration networks of 171 organizations of the cultural and creative production system of the city of Cagliari (558 nodes and 637 ties)