Accumulation of cultural capital at the intersection of socio-demographic features and productive specializations

This paper aims at introducing a conceptual framework and assessing how features of local systems combine with high levels of cultural capital. This framework encompasses the local productive specializations and socio-demographic characteristics, as well as their interplay. A review on related concepts and contributions helps to generate three hypotheses on place-based cultural capital. The paper works under the three hypotheses and applies the framework to an original dataset based on the Italian local systems. The results show how urban areas and made-in Italy local productive systems tend to associate with high levels of cultural capital. Moreover, the interplay between local productive specializations and socio-demographic characteristics highlights the role of place specificities. Such relations should be considered in the elaboration of culture-based policies of territorial development, and in further researches over the accumulative forces of cultural capital.