The idiosyncratic nature of culture with special reference to material culture and cultural districts. Walter Santagata University of Turin, Italy May 2005

The idiosyncratic nature of culture The word idiosyncrasy is used to signify peculiarity, or typicality. Culture is an idiosyncratic good because of its essential connection with a given place and a given epoch. Time and space are the basic attributes of idiosyncrasy

The idiosyncratic nature of cultural goods Two phenomena: that of localization of micro and small enterprises, and that of the idiosyncratic nature of culture, are the fundamentals of cultural districts In poor and developing countries many agglomerations of micro and small enterprises producing culture-based goods, like jewellery, apparel, textile or services of cultural heritage, are potential cultural districts

The basics of the idiosyncratic factor 1. Intangible localized culture has social and economic origins. The historical origin of a culture or the accumulation of cultural capital are linked to the demand, the needs and the internal organization of some primary social classes

The basics of the idiosyncratic factor 2. Culture-based goods are space-specific and time-specific goods. Culture has two profound anthropological roots: time and space. The production of a culture is indissolubly linked to a place, or in a social sense, to a community and its history. 3. Material, tangible, and intangible culture The most significant examples of cultural districts makes reference to goods based on material cultural heritage, i.e. a special area bordering on intangible-oral and tangible-natural cultural heritage

The basics of the idiosyncratic factor 4. Culture and generational goods. The creativity per se is the original and specific product of a generation. 5. Idiosyncrasy and tacit knowledge Personal or tacit knowledge refers to an information system within a geographic and communitarian space as defined by individual personal experience. Technological or cultural information is in the air: it is transmitted by means of tacit systems of communication.

Examples Developed Countries Ceramics production in the Caltagirone cultural district Artistic glass production in the Murano cultural district

Examples Developing Countries Ceramics Cultural District in Sigchos, Ecuador Khan Al Khalili, Jewellery cultural district in Cairo