Thank you for this. I’m not sure how this is sustainable or capable of being replicated given this involved a huge national investment into a town that had been designated a European cultural capital. I like the idea of the future involving interconnected economically viable villages and towns (I think 60,000 is more like a town or small city), and perhaps this story is inspiring
because it involves a town branding itself with its local history and culture and perhaps that sort of micro branding is how towns stand out. And I agree with Orlando that the strategy can’t just be tourism, so I would be curious to learn how small towns can become competitive in manufacturing or making or providing specific services for export….maybe one idea is a town develops a particular craft and then hosts digital nomads or people who want to spend a season learning that craft. Mixing tourism with economic production.
Although there also might be something to be said about the spill over impact culture investment has on entrepreneurialism, as well as the idea that culture is uniquely local and must come from the bottom up, giving smaller towns and cities a unique advantage in cultivating their unique culture.
That was my concern. How will this be funded?
Countries around the world invest in the economic development of their rural towns. The question isn’t how they will get the money but how they will use it. Some use that investment wisely and those investments pay off, some don’t!
I see. So you really mean villages are an important part of the future.
We still need large economic powerhouse cities and other manufacturing centers to provide a tax base that can then be distributed to these villages.
Oh yes, of course. And that’s a good point. A better title would have been: Maybe villages are our future—not just cities. I’ll change it to reflect more what I meant.
I’m not sure whether small towns necessarily need to be competitive in manufacturing, so much as they need to have manufacturing (or some other economic product). I like the idea of each one specializing in one kind of craft and attracting both local and transient populations to participate!
Interesting. What’s the distinction between being competitive in manufacturing versus having manufacturing? Maybe it goes to Jane Jacobs’ import replacement idea? In other words a town or city at least should be able to make some of the things it consumes even if it is not exporting those things…
What I mean is we have both large facilities like a Budweiser plant and smaller facilities like a craft beer plant. They are both competitive on the market, but the smaller one doesn't necessarily need to compete with the larger one. They both have their own markets, one bigger and one smaller. In this way, not every manufacturing plant needs to be the big giant one in the city with a lot of exports, there can also be smaller ones with small markets that support a village. If that makes sense?
I have to wonder if replicability ought to be the goal or measure of success, unless we are talking about process rather than outcome. The process--of investing in a community that knows itself better than its investors possibly can--might be worth applying elsewhere, just not necessarily everywhere. If the specifics of local geography, history, governance, and community self-image are ignored and if local voices are not driving the conversations in which cultural and economic development can be re-imagined, no template developed in Matera or anywhere else is going to enhance that community.
I'd be interested in specific services or crafts indigenous (or otherwise significant) to a particular locale and to the people who live there. How might a given enterprise, whether imported to or developed locally, improve the quality of community life on its own terms, not just as an economic driver or fungible commodity that might be produced anywhere?
I like the idea of process. It’s not one size fits all and maybe we identity a list of processes and practices that would allow/facilitate local communities to develop their own ideas, cultures and businesses. I’m inspired to dig into this more!
It's a good point. I don't think every village needs to be developed the same way. But I think it's a good alternative to the other way: a lot of investment coming in from the outside to fund tourism.