The “democracy cube” revised: assessing a culture-led regeneration process in Bergamo city

Reflecting on the threats of the commodification of art and culture, often driven by top-down cultural policy designs, the paper analyses a collaborative administration procedure between a local public authority (the Municipality of Bergamo) and a social cooperative (Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo). The “Special Public-Private Partnership”, a recent regulation activated for the first time in Italy, led to an effective and participated culture-led urban regeneration process, still acting in Bergamo city (North-east of Italy) and resulted in a best practice of active citizenship in support of social needs. The research question was to define if the collaborative governance is in charge to foster a new welfare model in Italy, and, eventually, how far has it gone. Furthermore, analysing this hypothesis, related theoretical and empirical questions will be examined.