The cultural diversity of Europe's regions provides excellent opportunity for economic growth, but this can only happen if this diversity is respected and valued more appropriately than it has been up to now that was the message from the Council of Europe's Committee for Culture and Regions in1987. In this anthology, a group of international respected researchers and others who are active in culture seek to answer the questions: what has regional investment in culture led to and what have the outcomes been - and what are the positive and negative experiences? The result is an analysis of investments at local and regional levels and a study of how these have stimulated development and led to processes of change for communities in general. Although much of the data is derived from the context of the Nordic countries, lessons can be gained for all of Europe's regions and elsewhere.