This paper focuses on the topic of Public Value in the realm of Community Governance with the aim to fill the gap in the literature of Public Management and Governance and to provide practitioners with good tools for measuring Public Value. It is argued, infact, that there is a major opportunity for governments to achieve effective and efficient results in improving their communities by allowing citizens to use performance measurement (Bovaird 2003, Holzer and Yang, 2004; Borgonovi 2008; Bianchi, Wiliams, 2013) to generate actions towards better public services (Bianchi, 2009, 2012, 2014; Bianchi, Rivenbark, 2014). In other words, the model of Community Governance, observes the linkages between citizens, governments and measuring performance as configured in a triangle (Foley, Martin, 2000). The literature will also cover the issue of the territorial dimension named the Metropolitan Area (Bryson, 2011) that, by its natural and original configuration as a public policy, is “per se” conceived as a form of public value that is generated or destroyed (Esposito, Ricci, 2015). Within the territorial configuration of Metropolitan Areas, policies towards the creation of integrated cultural systems, such as culture systems in this circumstance, will be also explored in order to understand how can create public value through integrated cultural systems and if Performance Measurement represents a tool that is useful to visualize tangible and intangible Public Values or if it is, rather, a “myth” as argued by some authoritative scholars (Mondell, 2004).
Key-Words: Amministrazioni Pubbliche, public value, community governance, integrated cultural system, performance measurement
