Modelling the cultural industries

Alternative definitions of the cultural industries lead to the construction of different models of the cultural production sector of the economy and hence to a different array of specific industries which are contained within the sector. In turn this implies not just differing estimates of the contribution of the cultural industries to output and employment in the economy but also significant differences in the way economic analysis can be applied to the cultural sector as a whole. This paper begins by discussing the way in which an economic approach to interpreting the scope of the creative and cultural industries can lead to a reasonable basis for defining them. It then goes on to examine the content of six distinct models of these industries, asking the question: is it possible to find a common core group of industries on which all of the models agree? The paper then considers the implications of the models for economic analysis of the cultural sector, and finishes with some conclusions for cultural policy.     

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE NETHERLANDS: STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, INNOVATIVENESS AND EFFECTS ON URBAN GROWTH

Creativity is central in stimulating economic growth in cities, regions and advanced capitalist economies in general. There is, of course, no one-to-one relation of the number of firms in creative industries to economic growth. Innovation is a key mechanism explaining the relationship of creative industries with economic performance. Based on an empirical study in the Netherlands we explore the effect of creative industries on innovation, and ultimately on employment growth in cities. In the Netherlands the three specific domains of creative industries - arts, media and publishing, and creative business services - make up 9 per cent of the business population. Drawing on survey data we find that firms in creative industries are indeed relatively innovative. Yet substantial differences are found across the three domains: firms in the arts domain are clearly less innovative, most likely due to a different (less market-oriented) dominant ideology. In addition, firms in creative industries located in urban areas are more innovative than their rural counterparts. We go on to analyse how the concentration of creative industries across cities is connected with employment growth. With the exception of the metropolitan city of Amsterdam, we find no measurable spill-over effect from creative industries. The presence of the creative class (in all kinds of industries other than creative ones) appears to be a much stronger driver of employment growth than creative industries.     

‘Shit is hard,yo’: young people making a living in the creative industries

ABSTRACT

Contemporary social science research on the creative industries demonstrates inequities in accessing good work in this field. Nonetheless, youth still increasingly are seeking to create careers in these fields. However, economic indicators that register growing employment in the creative industries may not fully register the participation of youth. The Young People Making a Living in the Creative Industries research project sought to document the multiple income streams that youth draw on while attempting to make a living in creative fields, mapping the areas of challenge and success in the entry years to creative work. Respondents in the research project articulated an informed knowingness and resistance to the norms of unpaid work in the creative industries and forwarded gender and race as structural categories that impact the experience of entry-level creative work. Respondents also articulated forming communities of care to respond to these challenges, including collectives, support groups, and other forms of networks, while highlighting the challenge of balancing community-based and economic motivations for creative industries work. The study highlights the role of community youth arts programmes on creative industries career incubation for youth, and the need to hear from youth themselves to better map youth participation in the creative industries.     

Creativity in the ‘Torrid’ zone: policy,creative industries and the vision for Northern Australia

Creative industries are recognised as a key driver of economic growth in both developed and developing nations. In addition to recognising the importance of creative industries, the Australian government has recently renewed a focus on the vast northern tropical area of this island nation as key to future economic and population growth, via the release of a white paper focussed on development options for the north. However, the white paper contains virtually no references to creative industries. In addition, Australia’s most recent national cultural policy, Creative Australia, has after only a few years slipped into obscurity and despite major resources being invested towards its development. Drawing on the almost 100 years of policy documentation relevant to Northern Australia, this paper highlights the limited attention paid to arts, culture and creative industries, and considers this relative policy vacuum in the context of global developments in creative industries.     

The dynamics of global visual effects and games development industries: lessons for Australia’s creative industries development policy

The paper critiques the focus of creative industries policy on capability development of small and medium sized firms and the provision of regional incentives. It analyses factors affecting the competitiveness and sustainability of the games development industry and visual effects suppliers to feature films. Interviews with participants in these industries highlight the need for policy instruments to take into consideration the structure and organization of global markets and the power of lead multinational corporations. We show that although forms of economic governance in these industries may allow sustainable value capture, they are interrupted by bottlenecks in which ferocious competition among suppliers is confronted by comparatively little competition among the lead firms. We argue that current approaches to creative industries policy aimed at building self-sustaining creative industries are unlikely to be sufficient because of the globalized nature of the industries. Rather, we argue that a more profitable approach is likely to require supporting diversification of the industries as ‘feeders’ into other areas of the economy.     

Politics of the ‘creative industries’ discourse and its variants

The existing academic debate on creative industries can be summarised as ‘Trojan horse or Rorschach blot’: creative industries working as a neoliberal discourse or producing different effects depending on local context. Arguing that these are two sides of the same coin, this article looks closely at the discourse’s depoliticising and encompassing forces and their interplay on the discourse’s intersection to the broader new economy narrative. The article’s focus is South Korean variants of creative industries discourse. First, the country’s ‘content industries’ discourse served as a Trojan horse for the depoliticising narrative of knowledge economy while boosting the cultural sector discursively and financially. Second, ‘creative economy’ has very recently emerged as the current conservative government’s master economic narrative. This discourse allows the government’s neoliberal economic policies to be further justified while making cultural policy unable to persuasively claim that creativity belongs in the culture’s domain.     

The Creative Economy: Vision or Illusion in the Structural Change?

This contribution discusses the hopes associated with the rise of the creative industries and gives explanations for the debates in politics, science and the media. In doing so, our underlying thesis is that the culture and creative economy is a virtual sector and that a uniform promotion—also by means of staged events that attract a lot of media attention—needs to be challenged. In a further step, the scientific implications will also be outlined on the basis of the term's “career” in the public debate. A brief analysis of the empiricism of the creative economy will provide further insight into its real significance and demonstrate possible definitional weaknesses of the term. The creative industries are an essential element of modern economic infrastructure. They will play an important role in the future, especially for cluster strategies. However, the scientific research so far is not able to reach more accurate conclusions regarding the effects of governance on the culture and creative industry. Therefore, this contribution shows future research fields. We will conclude by venturing an outlook on the further development of the sector and demonstrate its social and economic effects using the example of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia.     

THE "CREATIVE CLASS" IN THE UK: AN INITIAL ANALYSIS

Richard Florida argues that regional economic outcomes are tied to the underlying conditions that facilitate creativity and diversity. Thus the Creative Class thesis suggests that the ability to attract creativity and to be open to diverse groups of people of different ethnic, racial and lifestyle groups provides distinct advantages to regions in generating innovations, growing and attracting high‐technology industries, and spurring economic growth. In this paper we investigate the extent to which there might be similar processes concerning the relationship between creativity, human capital, and high‐technology industries at work in the UK as in North America. The approach taken is broadly sympathetic to the Creative Class thesis; critical perspectives and reservations from the literature are introduced as appropriate research is focused around the three principal research questions: Where is the creative class located in the UK? What is the impact of quality of place upon this dispersion? What is the connection between the location of the creative class and inequalities in technical and economic outcomes within the UK? To this end, the creative class and its subgroups are defined and identified. We then construct quality of place indicators relating to tolerance, diversity, creativity and cultural opportunity. To these are added measures of public provision and social cohesion. Data are analysed by means of correlations and regression. In general we find that, although the distribution of the creative class is uneven and complex, our results are consistent with the findings of the North American research with the notable exception of technology‐based employment growth. Finally, priorities for further research are discussed. The need to further investigate causality, variations within the creative class itself, and the potential role of qualitative data in this are highlighted, as is the potential fate of “non‐creative” workers and places.     

What are the concerns? Looking back on 15 years of research in cultural and creative industries

This paper surveys the research literature on cultural and creative industries (CCI). Academic discussions on CCI have grown extensively after the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) identified 13 sectors as constituting creative industries in the UK in 1998. The public has also become gradually convinced of the significance of CCI as being important for economic growth. We adopt a systematic and quantitative method to review the academic CCI literature. After collecting data, we first investigate the research fields under which the journals that publish CCI papers are categorized, finding that Business, Economics and Geography are the top three research fields. A second examination on the authors’ nationality indicates that their cultural background induces a different emphasis on their research field. We lastly apply the multiple main paths analysis to uncover the development trajectories of CCI research, with the result showing that the research agenda has changed along with a better understanding of the essential elements of CCI. Based on the literature on the main path, we observe the top five discussed themes: information technology, global cooperation, micro and fragmentary creative activities, remote places, and country/regional characteristics. Monitoring the discussions on these themes may help CCI researchers, creative workers, and policy makers to assess future directions for economic development.     

Cities,Clusters and Creative Industries: The Case of Film and Television in Scotland

Interest in the creative industries has burgeoned in recent years. They convey many positive images for the development of cities and regions in an increasingly market-driven, globalized economy. The cluster concept has had an important influence on thinking and policy towards the creative industries. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which these ideas help to explain a particular situation. It analyses the various forces affecting the performance of the film and television industries in Scotland. It concludes that these sectors have a more modest economic impact than commonly assumed and that national and transnational organizations and government regulation are more important than localized networks in influencing their scale and durability.     

台湾地区博物馆发展文化创意产业的理念与实践

文化创意为近年来发达国家地区竞相发展的经济力,我国台湾在地方政府的鼓励扶持下,利用文化创造活力强、文物资源丰富等优势,积极发展文化创意产业,成果突出,其中台北"故宫博物院"具有台湾地区博物馆发展文创产业指标的地位。台北"故宫博物院"通过精心设计展览内涵、向社会开放文物数字资源、培养民众美学素养等方式,吸引并固定了一大批观众;同时还积极开拓商机,征求厂商合作开发文物衍生商品,并结合典藏文物特色设计餐饮空间,文化创意产业获得了可观的产值和显著的社会效应。     

Space of Creative Industries: A Case Study of Spatial Characteristics of Creative Clusters in Shanghai

The rapid rise of creative or cultural industries not only contributes to regional economic growth, but also to a revised spatial model of urban structure, helping in the redevelopment of old town spaces. However, the spatial characteristics of creative clusters, especially at the micro-city level, are not fully understood. This study attempts to characterize the spatiality of creative clusters on the basis of a literature review and empirical study of Shanghai. By using Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial analysis and interviews, this paper examines the spatial features of creative clusters in Shanghai and their connection with urban historical, social, cultural and political aspects. It finds that creative clusters are primarily distributed in particular locations of Shanghai, namely in the inner-city, old industrial districts, places close to universities, Central Business Districts (CBDs), and entertainment and tourist zones. The old colonial zones in Shanghai play an important role in fostering the agglomeration of creative industries because of the special image of these spaces, in particular due to the abundant workshop spaces remaining from the industrial heritage. Great intimacy between creative industries and urban spaces becomes apparent in the case of Shanghai, demonstrating that the creative economy has become an important instrument in regenerating cities. Moreover, a differentiation in space among various categories of creative clusters in Shanghai was also noticed in this study.     

Reasons for Clustering of Creative Industries in Italy and Spain

Creative industries and creative employment tend to concentrate around medium and large cities, forming creative local systems. We follow a multidisciplinary approach, based on cultural and creative economics, evolutionary geography and urban economics, in order to analyse the forces behind the clustering of employment in creative industries in a comparative analysis of Italy and Spain. The results show different patterns of clustering of creative employment in both countries. The historical and cultural endowments, the average size of creative industries, the size of the place, the productive diversity, and the concentration of human capital and creative class have been determined to be common factors leading to a concentration of creative firms and creative employment in both countries.     

CREATIVE CLUSTERS IN BERLIN: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE QUALITY OF PLACE IN PRENZLAUER BERG AND KREUZBERG

Urban creative clusters are currently a major focus of attention, as their prominent position in both local political and academic circles makes evident. Many authors stress the importance of spatial concentration for creative industries. However, only a few studies have focused on the individual entrepreneur. As a result, empirical evidence of the meaning of urban place as a site for social networks and a space for inspiration is still scarce. This is of some consequence as entrepreneurs provide a crucial link between creative activities and economic change and development. This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating how different creative entrepreneurs choose and evaluate their location. Using qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs in two creative clusters in the Berlin neighbourhoods Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg, this article shows the significance of the look and feel of specific places and explains how and for whom local networks are important.     

‘Innovation is a dirty word’: contesting innovation in the creative industries

Innovation is a term that is used and defined in many different ways. This holds for innovation in general, but particularly for innovation in the creative industries. In cultural policy and in academic literature, the creative industries are often addressed in the relation to their innovative capacities, yet a shared conceptualisation of innovation in this sector is lacking. This paper seeks to develop a conceptualisation of innovation in the creative industries based on 43 interviews with creative workers about their views and practices. Results indicate that creative workers articulate numerous views on innovation, with three main approaches: innovation as something completely new, innovation as a contribution to society and innovation as a continuous recombination of new and existing elements, with the latter being most prevalent in the creative industries and considered a central (by-product of the) process of creative production that is highly contextual to specific localities and fields.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF LOCALIZATION AND URBANIZATION ECONOMIES: EVIDENCE FROM THE LOCATION OF NEW FIRMS IN SPAIN

The objective of this paper is to analyze why firms in some industries locate in specialized economic environments (localization economies) while those in other industries prefer large city locations (urbanization economies). To this end, we examine the location decisions of new manufacturing firms in Spain at the city level and for narrowly defined industries. First, we estimate firm location models to obtain estimates that reflect the importance of localization and urbanization economies in each industry. Then, we regress these estimates on industry characteristics related to the potential importance of labor market pooling, input sharing, and knowledge spillovers. Urbanization effects are high in knowledge‐intensive industries, suggesting that firms locate in large cities to benefit from knowledge spillovers. We also find that localization effects are high in industries that employ workers whose skills are more industry‐specific, suggesting that industries locate in specialized economic environments to share a common pool of specialized workers.     

北京美术产业对地方文化的嵌入性程度分析

北京十一五规划指出北京将大力发展文化产业,尤其是文化创意产业。美术是文化产业中最具有创意色彩的产业部门,北京是中国最重要的美术产业中心,近5年来出现了一批美术创意产业集中区。本文使用近十多年来国外经济地理学家频繁使用的嵌入概念分析北京的美术产业。本文所采用的嵌入概念更强调KarlPolanyi的观点,以北京三个主要美术产业区798艺术区、宋庄画家村、观音堂文化大道为研究地点,通过分析实地访谈资料、艺术家和画廊的网站资料,探讨企业和艺术家在作品风格、市场定位、企业分布、企业制度等方面是如何嵌入北京地方制度文化和意识形态文化的。本文认为在把握嵌入程度,避免过度地方化的程度上有待未来讨论。     

The creative industries: conflict or collaboration? An analysis of the perspectives from which policymakers,art organizations and creative organizations in the creative industries are acting

This paper compares and contrasts the instruments and values formulated in the creative industries policies of three peripheral municipalities of between 150,000 and 220,000 inhabitants in the Netherlands (Groningen, Arnhem and Eindhoven) with the needs of the creative industries itself. The needs of the creative industries have been empirically researched by conducting an online survey (n = 556) and twelve in-depth interviews with professionals from different types of organizations in the creative industries. In this study, the theoretical framework of Boltanski, Thévenot and Chiapello is used in the analysis of policy documents, the outcomes of the online survey, and the in-depth interviews in order to uncover differences and similarities in perspectives from which art organizations, creative organizations and policymakers are acting in the creative industries.     

BOOK REVIEW

This article examines the transition from cultural industries to creative industries policies in the English regions between 1980 and 2010. It argues that audio-visual policy in this period is best understood as a trajectory: the gradual, differentiated, contested, but overall coherent development of a policy discourse and corresponding institutional structure. This trajectory can be mapped onto the wider political economy of the period: the transition from social-democratic reformism to neo-liberalism at the end of the 1970s and up to the present. This process has resulted in audio-visual policy being determined to a large degree by the perceived needs of commercial interests, up to the point where regional cultural policy is virtually indistinguishable from economic policy. The transition from cultural to creative industries reflects the development of the neo-liberal state in which cultural policy has been instrumentalised within the larger project of the privatisation of public assets and the shift of relative power from labour to capital.     

Youthful Creativity in Regional Australia: Panacea for Unemployment and Out‐Migration?

This paper addresses the theme of youth out‐migration from rural Australia, in the context of recent policy discussions about creativity and its role in regional development. Ethnographic fieldwork in one rural location – the New South Wales Far North Coast – is drawn upon to highlight how creative industries are being cast as a potential way of promoting cultural activities and jobs for young people, and in turn, how they might be imagined as a means to mitigate youth out‐migration. Yet, creative industries have contradictory employment and social outcomes. Creative industries are likely to generate higher rates of youth participation in economic activities than public data reveal. However, strategies for future job growth should also consider the limitations and instabilities of creative industry employment. Second, and more broadly, the paper discusses those socio‐cultural dimensions of nascent creative industries that may have a more substantial impact when conceived as part of strategies to stem youth exodus from rural areas. Creative activities may contribute to rural development in indirect ways, especially if linked to policy goals of increased tolerance of youth activities, better provision of cultural services, and improved well‐being for young people. While formal job‐creation may be limited, creative industries could mitigate some of the impacts of youth migration to cities by enriching regional social life and mediating perceptions of the advantages and drawbacks of rural versus urban life. This kind of policy imagination requires a shift in attitudes towards young people and a more genuine commitment to encourage young people to feel that they belong in non‐metropolitan areas.