Abstract

In the recent years the economic debate on culture is growingly focusing upon creativity and its impact on local economy and welfare as crucial issues in the light of present society's evolution and emerging needs. In such a respect, a delicate role is played by the policy tools designed and adopted at both central and local level in every advanced Country. In the Italian experience, some regional governments such as Emilia Romagna and Lombardy, meeting with the interest of the central Ministry of Culture, start to exploit the available tools aimed at encouraging and consolidating creativity in a variety of fields. The widespread and heterogeneous practices have induced these administrations to base their own decisions upon the previous use of benchlearning, through which it becomes possible to elaborate a critical comparison of different policy frameworks and tools and to identify the most appropriate solutions in each specific case. The «network of networks» project and the «agenda for creative governance» are among the most interesting new experiences aimed at the establishment of strong horizontal linkages among the cities.