Culture, innovation and periphery: a theoretical sketch and some evidence from different portuguese contexts

The present paper tries to look at the culture-innovation nexus in periphery. Starting with a theoretical discussion on this issue, in which the role of culture in current capitalism is analysed, we raise the question whether the increasing imporance of culture in the present economic context has been creating new opportunities for peripheral regions to innovate, namely by the valorization of tradition.The paper will highlight the results of four case studies from the handicraft pottery sector. These achievements will then be confronted with an exemple of cultural political promotion in an urban area - Lisbon'94, European Cultural Capital, in order to unravel the political logic of cultural and innovation in the periphery. The final section provides a brief conclusion, placing emphasis on the ambivalences which characterise peripherical modernisation processes and their cultural dimension. We argue that the ability of periphery to sustain development strategies based on the valorization of tradition depends primarily upon a successful management of these ambivalences.