Ecomuseo e sviluppo locale nell'Alta Valle del Naia (Umbria)

Ecomuseum and Local Development in the High Valley of Naia (Umbria). - The ecomuseum is in theory the instrument which, better than any other, fits the enhancement of the historical and cultural values of heritage in favour of local development. Nonetheless, many of the practical applications are shifting towards a reduced interpretation of the original formula, which was perhaps too ambitious. This paper proposes a critical discussion of the Ecomuseum Project in the Alta Valle del Naia (South Umbria), examining whether an idea that was born in academia can become a local project. Even when it is stimulated by extra-local factors, the Ecomuseum project builds territorial surplus value, both synergetically as it pre-establishes network synergies, and territorially as it recognises specific cognitive features whose value had not previously been recognised. In particular, the project reinterprets the area as a cultural and museal district, proposing an integrated increase in value that is capable of producing positive externalities.