Knowledge and Social Capital: Drivers for Sustainable Local Growth

This paper presents a knowledge resources perspective for territorial competitiveness and sustainability. The latter is defined as a pathway promoted by a plurality of public and private actors, in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, who find that relationships and social cohesion are the drivers for the construction of shared territorial governance. This study integrates an extensive literature review with data from longitudinal empirical research. Authors have adopted the methodology of qualitative research-based case study. In particular, this paper focused the analysis on a project of territorial governance promoted in the Marches region of Italy. This region was selected as a case study, because it is emblematic of the Italian context; the territory is characterized by small businesses diffused throughout the socio-economic fabric and by the proactive role taken by local governments. The perspective offers a powerful instrument for raising awareness of the gaps that local policymakers should address through their initiatives in the knowledge economy.