Administration & Society 1–26 © The Author(s) 2015 DOI: 10.1177/0095399715581037 aas.sagepub.com Article Collaborative Local Cultural Governance: What Works? The Case of Cultural Districts in Italy Silvia Gugu 1 and Martina Dal Molin 1 Abstract The cross-sectional nature of cultural policy has led to the proliferation of partnerships among the public, private, and societal sectors, particularly at the local level. Despite the increase in such collaborations, there is little academic research on how actor diversity is shaping local cultural governance. This study aims to understand how actor diversity affects governance dimensions in a Cultural District in Italy. Our findings suggest a number of challenges for local government, which render them vulnerable to political instability, perpetuate power and resource imbalances, and undermine leadership. Keywords Cultural District, collaborative governance, actor diversity, local government Introduction During the last several decades, local governments have been commonly described as “networked polity” (Durose, 2009; Matthews, 2014), reflect- ing their growing use of collaborative arrangements and partnerships (Kenis 1 Politecnico di Milano, Italy Corresponding Author: Martina Dal Molin, Department of Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4/b, 20133 Milano, Italy. Email: martina.dalmolin@polimi.it 581037AAS XX X 10.1177/0095399715581037Administration & SocietyGugu and Dal Molin research-article 2015 doi:10.1177/0095399715581037 Administration & Society OnlineFirst, published on April 20, 2015 as by guest on April 21, 2015 aas.sagepub.com Downloaded from