Culture, Media & Creative Industries @ Kings

Andy Pratt has a new publication in Italian:

‘La cultura e le politiche basate sulle industrie creative : connettere produzione e consumo’ in F. Angeli (ed), Nuovi scenari per l’attrattività delle città e dei territori: dibattiti, progetti e strategie in contesti metropolitani mondiali.

Details of the book can be accessed here.

For those who do not read Italian (Andy included), the title in English is Culture and Creative Industries Policies: Linking Production and Consumption.

Abstract: Richard Florida’s notion cultural consumption as an anchor for the creative class informs much urban policy at the present time. It is commonly presented as the ‘next new thing’ or, as the appropriate urban policy for the knowledge economy. However, it is simply the latest version of the instrumental uses of culture used as ‘unique selling propositions’ of one city against another in what is a zero-sum game. A proper policy for the creative economy, or the knowledge economy, would have to be formulated in quite different terms.This paper points to the (overlooked) creative and cultural economy that is generally outstripping rates of growth in all other sectors of the economy: it has intrinsic economic and cultural value both of which can sustain cities.Such a cultural economy can be sustained and grown by dedicated policies, policies that aredifferent to, and complementary with, cultural industry policies. These policies must be rooted in an appreciation of how the cultural economy operates. Critical is the embedding of the cultural economy in production and consumption networks. This paper calls for more evidence based policy in this field. In addition, the cultural and creative industries do bring some social benefits. However, this fact should be considered as additional to, and not the primary objective of, cultural industries policies.

The paper was originally presented at L’attractivité : Maîtrise du temps et de l’espace, Colloque International PUCA-CRETEIL-TVES, 17 et 18 Novembre 2008, Chai de Bercy, Paris 12ème