• Our country is a place of culture. From the ancient Greco-Roman heritage to the Renaissance and beyond, with the highest number of Unesco sites in the world and deep-rooted traditions in all the arts, Italy is synonymous with culture. But what is the place of culture in our society and economy today?
• It is not usual for a generalist journal such as this one to dedicate a volume to a single sector. Of course, the reason for this issue of the Rivista di Politica Economica is that the field of cultural services and goods largely expresses the identity of the society in which it is expressed and in which it carries out its activities, as well as contributing to the tangible and intangible well-being of the people involved in it as providers or users of cultural services. Without any claim to exhaustiveness, we therefore present in this volume a reconnaissance of the structure and recent evolution of the cultural sector in our country, as well as an albeit incomplete examination of important aspects related to the production and use of cultural services.
• In the first part of the volume, the authors define the context, metrics and some structural issues affecting the cultural sector. In the second part, we present a collection of contributions that delve into some specific, and in our opinion absolutely relevant, aspects of the economy of culture and the reflections and interconnections it has with many areas of Italian and European society.

• The economic dimension of the cultural sector (the weight it has on GDP, employment, other aggregate variables of the economic system) is differentially assessed by official national and international statistical sources as well as by the numerous independent reports that have analysed it.
• This contribution proposes a description of the size and economic dynamics of the cultural sector from an international perspective that, taking into account the inhomogeneity of existing statistical data, attempts to reconstruct an analysis of the factors that over the last fifteen years have determined its growth, difficulties and major changes in industrial structure and business models. The analysis extends to the most recent development, in the year of the pandemic crisis and in the two years that followed. The position of the Italian cultural sector, its strengths and weaknesses, is briefly illustrated.
• The main thesis is that the importance of the cultural sector does not depend only (or even so much) on its size, but rather on its place in the production structure and socio-economic systems.

JEL Classification: Z11.
Keywords: cultural economics, pandemics, cultural industries, digital industries.

• In the face of complex contemporary challenges, the role of culture and cultural institutions is at the centre of intense debates about their function and the impact they can have on society and individuals. Traditionally associated with heritage conservation, cultural venues are undergoing a significant transformation, increasingly aligning their missions with community needs to promote active citizenship and individual and collective well-being.
• This shift in perspective emphasises cultural participation as a catalyst for creativity and peer learning, transforming cultural institutions into agents of innovation and transformation. Active cultural participation becomes crucial for the creation of dynamic places animated by practices of co-creation, exchange and innovation that foster the understanding of diversity, the overcoming of stereotypes, and the encounter with the other.
• This contribution explores the participatory nature of cultural institutions, which can facilitate the initiation of transformative pathways towards social cohesion, intersectional awareness, individual and collective well-being and proactive social change.

JEL Classification: I31, Z10.
Keywords: individual well-being, collective well-being, culture, cultural participation, social cohesion.

• The article focuses on the existing labour needs for the cultural and creative professions in Italy and the public policies that could be implemented. Three topics are addressed: the schematisation of some structural and evolutionary economic facts of the cultural and creative sector in Italy; the highlighting of critical issues and some key topics regarding work and professions in the cultural and creative enterprise sectors; and the proposal of intervention policies in favour of cultural and creative professions. Public policies, in particular, are proposed to promote some specific professional profiles that are considered most innovative. In particular, the types and techniques of education and vocational training that should be applied are highlighted.

Jel Classification: J24, Z1, J44.
Keywords: cultural and creative enterprises, cultural professions, soft skills, labour market flexibility.

• A new literature within the economics of culture demonstrates through exploratory analyses that the accumulation of cultural experiences can be a determinant of virtuous behaviour. Pro-sociality and pro-activity as characteristics of these behaviours are the basis of a first empirical reflection that opens the way towards a new research agenda on culture as antecedent and determinant of pro-environmental behaviours. In this paper we address the topic from these contributions in order to assert the need for a theoretical framework that provides the possibility of measuring the impact of culture on behavioural change.

JEL Classification: Z1, D1, D91.
Keywords: Z, culture, cultural capital, pro-environmental behaviour.

• Our Constitution commits the Republic to protect, guarantee, and promote the equality of citizens with respect to certain fundamental goods, such as freedom, work, health, security, education, and culture.
• Protection, guarantees, and promotion, in practice, are implemented through a system of public services, most of them decentralised. Some of them, such as those relating to health and education, are required to ensure minimum levels of provision, so that neither the different economic and social conditions in which citizens find themselves, nor the structure of the territory in which they live, restrict the right of everyone to enjoy essential goods.
• The article proposes a reflection on what are, or should be, the services that guarantee the right to culture in a country where barriers to access are still very high and participation draws maps of extraordinary inequality.

JEL Classification: I30, L3, Z1.
Keywords: cultural service management, cultural policies, cultural services, cultural welfare.

• The contribution illustrates the driving role of the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) for cultural and creative industries (CCI) in green, digital and social transitions.
• The genesis and scope of action of the Community are explained, highlighting its relevance also for the national context.
• The contribution focuses on the potential for cultural heritage with respect to the challenges of the triple transition.

JEL Classification: O1, O3, L2, L3.
Keywords: cultural and creative industries, Knowledge and Innovation Communities, triple transition, cultural heritage.

• In a context in which state funding for cultural institutions decreases or remains static, they are under increasing pressure to attract funds from the private sector. But while private subsidisation of public cultural institutions is a necessity, it also brings with it risks linked to the nature of the income and the actors holding it. This has led, in some contexts, to ethical and political outcry, placing cultural institutions and public actors before increasingly pressing questions of expediency.
• The article analyses the rules that, in Italy and in England, determine the possibility for national museums to accept sponsorships from private entities or to allow the use of digital reproductions of cultural assets held in state collections. Through the examination of some controversial and emblematic cases of the relationship between public and private in the management of cultural institutions, the choices and instruments that national museums, institutions and central governments have adopted to deal with such situations are highlighted.

JEL Classification: Z18.
Keywords: cultural public policy, sponsorship, digital reproduction of cultural property, Italy, England, national museums, culture funding.

• The Italian business culture is a polytechnic culture, i.e. founded on original syntheses between scientific knowledge, technological skills and humanistic knowledge, between quality and functionality, between awareness of the importance of the memory of 'doing, doing well' and an aptitude for innovation.
• The relationship between the company and its rooted territories reinforces a special sensitivity to all dimensions of sustainability, environmental and social. And it also translates into a sophisticated tendency towards the quality not only of production, but also of the places of production and work, of the so-called 'beautiful factory', i.e. well-designed, innovative, inclusive, safe and, indeed, sustainable.
• The values of the family business, attentive to people and all stakeholders, are its fundamental cornerstones. And they give a special connotation to the ability to 'produce beautiful things that please the world', following the definition of a great economic historian, Carlo Maria Cipolla. The primacies of mechatronics. Hands that think.
• Design is an exemplary testimony to this. And the museums and historical business archives united in Museimpresa document the evolution of manufacturing and service activities that precisely in their stories of enterprise and flexible attitude to change root their competitiveness on international markets. A solid social capital to withstand the challenges of the new globalisation.

JEL Classification: L6, L8.
Keywords: know-how, competitiveness, polytechnic culture, storytelling, social sustainability, manufacturing, continuing education, international vision.