Culture and Place-Based Development: A Socio-Economic Analysis

The greater focus on the growth and development of regions and localities is impacting upon the way that culture is conceptualised at the place-based level. However, cultural factors are often absent from analyses of economic development. As a means of addressing this missing link, the paper conceptualises and operationalises a framework of place-based community culture and business culture to analyse the extent to which they differ across places, as well the extent to which the community cultures of places is associated with the underlying business culture of such places. The study develops a series of place-based cultural indices and undertakes econometric analysis, taking Wales in the UK as a reference region. The analysis finds considerable variability in cultural characteristics across both regions and localities, with the type of community culture embedded within places often strongly associated with place-based business culture. It is concluded that economic development prospects are related to both the business and community culture of places.