Cultural and Creative Industries concept - a historical perspective

Abstract. Innovation is a main economy driver in the 21st century and in recent years has shifted from a primarily technological ‘information society’ mantra to one describing broader non-technological innovation and intellectual capital. In any case this current approach is more suitable for a service-based sustainable society. The creative and cultural economy in the digital environment is a growing part of the global economy. Trade based on creativity, knowledge and information generates jobs, wealth and cultural engagement. According to a UNDP report Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) contribute up to 7% of GDP and is the fastest growing sector of many economies. In Latvia the term Creative Industries (CI) has been used since 2005 and similarly to other Baltic States Latvia has accepted the CI definition provided by the British Department of Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS). Despite that, broader entrepreneurship policy support for CCI is used very little. In spite of the lack of attention by economic policy makers, creative industries in Latvia exist, therefore it makes sense to talk about them and analyze their economic condition as a means of understanding more deliberately their economic potential. The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of CCI with the method of literature review and to establish an understanding of the describing terms and theories. This is crucial because the amount of literature is large and many sources express policy formulations which could be questioned with respect to their academic strength. This research paper has three main themes – (a) key descriptions of CCI and related concepts; (b) statistical perceptions and the limitations of existing statistical frameworks; and (c) some interesting theories of how to perceive CCI.

Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Creative Industries

The culture sector suffers from a lack of strategic support and financial investment. The challenge is, thus, to promote and strengthen the contribution of the culture sector to the benefit of the European economy. 1 1 European Commission, 'Culture: supporting Europe's cultural and creative sectors' <http://ec.europa.eu/culture/tools/culture-2000_en.htm> accessed 20 August 2015 (original emphasis). 2 See, for instance, E Bustamante (ed.), Industrias creativas: amenazas sobre la cultura digital (Gedisa Editorial 2011); P Bouquillion, B Miège and P Moeglin, L'industrialisation des biens symboliques: les industries créatives en regard des industries culturelles (

In this article I attempt to give a comprehensive summary on creativity, on the connection between creativity and society, and on the economic value of creativity, i.e. on the creative industries according to the different literature, European policies and studies on that topic. It will be shown, that creativity can be understood differently and so can be the creative industries defined in very different ways, too. I stress the importance of the social context, the role of the environment, which is crucial for the creative idea, whether we speak about artistic or practical creativity.

The article critiques official notions of creative industries with reference to definitions of both culture and creativity. The knowledge economy-based concept of creative industries, it is maintained, has no specific cultural content and ignores the distinctive attributes of both cultural creativity and cultural products. As such it overrides important public good arguments for state support of culture, subsuming the cultural sector and cultural objectives within an economic agenda to which it is illsuited. We argue against this turn in public policy and for a cultural policy that views its object as all forms of cultural production, both industrial and artisan. Finally we question the longer term motives and consequences for cultural policy of the creative industries agenda.

European Research Studies Journal, 2017

Nowadays, the information economy is in the process of transition to a creative economy focusing on human creativity and innovative ideas. Creative industries are among the fastest growing sectors of the global economy, more and more of export capacity of the developed countries of the European Union relies on the creative capital and companies of the creative industries. However, the innovation and labour productivity rates of the Latvian population are lower than in the developed regions of Europe. The aim of the research is to evaluate the creative industries companies in Latvia, detect their problems and identify opportunities for development. At first, in the article, the theoretical basis of the activity and specificity of detecting creative industries have been reviewed, taking into account the fact that creativity is an intangible factor that is exposed to constant change and not easy to measure, which creates problems of management in practice. In the second part, the composition of the creative industries in Latvia is defined by identifying 8 groups according to the activity type, which can be directly attributed to creative industries, including software and computer services group. Next, based on statistical data and survey results, the characteristics of Latvian creative industries are defined in order to understand the current situation, problems in the creative industries sector; as well as analyse the development potential of the creative industries. At the end of the article, there are conclusions and suggestions for improving the performance of the creative industries companies. Used in the research are the following theoretical methods: textual analysis, document analysis and content analysis, the survey method, methods of data processing and statistical analysis. The period of research is from year 2010 to 2015. The survey part of the research took place from April until May 2016. The research was limited by the inaccessibility of the current statistical and economic information isolating the creative industries. Official data are only available at the NACE classification 2-digit level, which poses constraints for characterizing each creative sub-sector in the industry and could serve for the sectoral analysis of solely the sub-sectors directly linked to creativity.

Creative industries are of constantly growing significance both on national level as well as when comparing competitiveness internationally. While creative industries are an often used term, different concepts of it still exist, varying from country to country. In this paper we aim to compare and measure the role of creative industries in economic development of two culturally and historically similar countries, Lithuania and Latvia. We find that though concepts of the creative industries in both countries are alike, certain differences are present. Impact of creative industries on economic development is measured through its role in employment and GDP. In addition to measuring creative industries role on national level, impact on economic development is compared between the selected countries.

International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2007

The article critiques official notions of creative industries with reference to definitions of both culture and creativity. The knowledge economy-based concept of creative industries, it is maintained, has no specific cultural content and ignores the distinctive attributes of both cultural creativity and cultural products. As such it overrides important public good arguments for state support of culture, subsuming the cultural sector and cultural objectives within an economic agenda to which it is illsuited. We argue against this turn in public policy and for a cultural policy that views its object as all forms of cultural production, both industrial and artisan. Finally we question the longer term motives and consequences for cultural policy of the creative industries agenda.

Geography Compass 3(4): 1483-1498., 2009

For those new to it, the literature on cultural industries can be confusing. While some authors refer to cultural industries, others refer to cultural-products industries or creative industries. Collectively, this heterogeneous group of industries comprises the cultural economy or the creative economy. Four typologies are presented, enabling one to more easily compare and contrast the essential features of commonly used definitions. The paper then discusses how this vague bundle of concepts is still useful as a lens on contemporary trends in industrialized economies.

Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, 2021

This paper aims to analyse the conditions that enable a double political-economic instrumentation of culture through European Union programmes, and their consequences for the cultural sector. The first European programmes focused on the symbolic value of culture which was perceived as an essential element for strengthening the European identity, and thus as a crucial tool in the project of building the European identity, which is part of a political integration programme. In the context of the development of the creative economy, which overlapped the 2008 economic crisis and a growing influence of the market ideology, a few years later, the European Union launched the Creative Europe programme, thus setting up a new development framework for the cultural sector. For culture, the economic and political arguments in the Creative Europe programme outline a future inherently connected to its contribution to these fields, leaving behind the symbolic and social value of culture characterised by non-lucrative purposes. The programme lays out a direction in which culture is monetized as competitive advantage and bets on the contribution of the cultural and creative industries to become a competitor on the global creative economy. The new framework offered by Creative Europe transforms the approach to culture, placing it in a landscape of global competition, in the company of creative industries, favouring the integration of culture by the latter, not the other way around, thus entailing structural changes in the cultural sector.

The era of the cultural and creative industries, which can be said to date from 1997, brought together many different approaches to culture around an urgent call for recognition of a new reality that was «out there» and that represented the future, change, renewal and the revitalisation of the economy. However that energy for change was gradually eroded by a number of factors that reduced their initial expectations. Those factors included absorption by real-estate development, their own ability to integrate rapidly into new digital, media challenges and the scant intellectual and financial resources earmarked by most local authorities for their development. This article tracks the complex, disputed accounts of the «cultural and/or creative» industries and seeks to establish if not what they actually are at least why they are worthwhile in terms of political effort, i.e. how they came to be a «cause for concern», and what type of new concern they may now have become.