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Creative industries
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The phrase creative industries (or sometimes creative economy) refers to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being a growing part of the global economy. The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products; such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as advertising, public relations and direct marketing. Aesthetic live performance experiences are also generally included, contributing to an overlap with definitions of art and culture, and sometimes extending to include aspects of tourism and sport.
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Encyclopedia
The phrase creative industries (or sometimes creative economy) refers to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being a growing part of the global economy. The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products; such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as advertising, public relations and direct marketing. Aesthetic live performance experiences are also generally included, contributing to an overlap with definitions of art and culture, and sometimes extending to include aspects of tourism and sport. Economic activities focussed on designing, making and selling objects or works of art such as jewellery, haute couture, books of poetry or other creative writing, or fine art also often feature in definitions of the sector because the value of such objects derives from a high degree of aesthetic originality.
Demarcation of the sector
The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has produced a widely-quoted definition of the creative industries as:
- “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” - (for a definition see also Cultural Institutions Studies).
The current DCMS definition recognises eleven creative sectors
The DCMS list has been influential, and many other nations have formally adopted it. It has also been criticised. It has been argued that the division into sectors obscures a divide between lifestyle business, non-profits, and larger businesses, and between those who receive state subsidies (e.g., film) and those who do not (e.g., computer games). The inclusion of the antiques trade is often questioned, since it does not generally involve production except of reproductions and fakes. The inclusion of all computer services has also been questioned.
Some nations, such as Hong Kong, have preferred to shape their policy around a tighter focus on copyright ownership in the value chain. They adopt the WIPO's classifications, which divide the Creative Industries up according to who owns the copyrights at various stages during the production & distribution of creative content.
Others have suggested a distinction between those industries that are open to mass production and distribution (film and video; videogames; broadcasting; publishing), and those that are primarily craft-based and are meant to be consumed in a particular place and moment (visual arts; performing arts; cultural heritage).
Predecessors and comparators of the DCMS method
The DCMS approach has antecedents in earlier, international, attempts to measure creative activity, notably
- the Leading European Group (LEG).
- The Canadian statistical office (needs expansion)
- UNESCO (needs expansion)
How creative workers are counted
The DCMS classifies enterprises and occupations as creative according to what the enterprise primarily produces, and what the worker primarily does. Thus, a company which produces records would be classified as belonging to the music industrial sector, and a worker who plays piano would be classified as a musician.
The primary purpose of this is to quantify - for example it can be used to count the number of firms, and the number of workers, creatively employed in any given location, and hence to identify places with particularly high concentrations of creative activities.
It leads to some complications which are not immediately obvious. For example, a security guard working for a music company would be classified as a creative employee, although not as creatively occupied.
The total number of creative employees is then calculated as the sum of:
- all workers employed in creative industries, whether or not creatively occupied (eg all musicians, security guards, cleaners, accountants, managers, etc working for a record company)
- all workers that are creatively occupied, and are not employed in creative industries (for example, a piano teacher in a school). This includes people whose second job is creative, for example somebody who does weekend gigs, writes books, or produces artwork in her spare time
Properties or characteristics of creative industries
According to Caves (2000), creative industries are characterized by seven economic properties:
- Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.
- Art for art’s sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by 'humdrum' jobs.
- Motley crew principle: For relative complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.
- Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and by uniqueness: each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).
- A list/B list: Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.
- Time flies: When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.
- Ars longa: Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect rents.
The properties of Caves have been criticized for being too rigid (Towse, 2000). Not all creative workers are purely driven by 'art for art's sake'. The 'ars longa' property also holds for certain noncreative products (i.e., licensed products). The 'time flies' property also holds for large construction projects. Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.
Difference from the 'cultural industries'
There is often a question mark over the boundaries between creative industries and the similar term of cultural industries. Cultural industries are best described as an adjunct-sector of the creative industries, including activities such as: cultural tourism and heritage; museums and libraries; sports and outdoor activities; through a variety of 'way of life' activities that arguably range from local pet shows to a host of hobbyist concerns. The possible difference would thus be that the cultural Industries are more concerned about delivering other kinds of value to society than simply monetary value, such as cultural wealth or social wealth - see also cultural institutions studies.
The creative class
Some authors, such as the American economist Richard Florida, argue for a wider focus on the products of knowledge workers and judge the 'creative class' (his own term) to include nearly all those offering professional knowledge-based services. A critique of Richard Florida's research and theoretical framework has been developed by Matteo Pasquinelli (2006) in the context of Italian Operaismo.
Difference from the 'knowledge industries'
At that point, the term begins to elide with knowledge economy and questions of intellectual property ownership in general.
The creative class and diversity
Florida's focus leads him to pay particular attention to the nature of the creative workforce. In a study of why particular US cities such as San Francisco seem to attract creative producers, Florida argues that high proportion of workers from the 'creative class' provide a key input to creative production, which enterprises seek out. He seeks to establish, quantitatively, the importance of diversity and multiculturalism in the cities concerned, for example the existence of a significant public gay community, ethnic and religious variety, and tolerance.
Economic contribution
Globally, Creative Industries excluding software and general scientific research and development are said to have accounted for around 4% of the world's economic output in 1999, which is the last year for which comprehensive figures are currently available. Estimates of the output corresponding to scientific Research and Development suggest that an additional 4-9% might be attributable to the sector if its definition is extended to include such activities, though the figures vary significantly between different countries.
Taking the UK as an example, in the context of other sectors, the creative industries make a far more significant contribution to output than hospitality or utilities and deliver four times the output due to agriculture, fisheries and forestry. In terms of employment and depending on the definition of activities included, the sector is a major employer of between 4-6% of the UK's working population, though this is still significantly less than employment due to traditional areas of work such as retail and manufacturing.
Within the creative industries sector and again taking the UK as an example, the three largest sub-sectors are design, publishing, and television and radio. Together these account for around 75% of revenues and 50% of employment.
The complex supply chains in the creative industries sometimes make it challenging to calculate accurate figures for the gross value added by each sub-sector. This is particularly the case for the service-focused sub-sectors such as advertising, whereas it is more straightforward in product-focused sub-sectors such as crafts. Not surprisingly, perhaps, competition in product-focused areas tends to be more intense with a tendency to drive the production end of the supply chain to become a commodity business.
There may be a tendency for publicly-funded creative industries development services to inaccurately estimate the number of creative businesses during the mapping process. There is also imprecision in nearly all tax code systems that determine a person's profession, since many creative people operate simultaneously in multiple roles and jobs. Both these factors mean that official statistics relating to the Creative Industries should be treated with caution.
Wider role
As some first world countries struggle to compete in traditional markets such as manufacturing, many now see the creative industries as a key component in a new knowledge economy, capable perhaps of delivering urban regeneration, often through initiatives linked to exploitation of cultural heritage that leads to increased tourism. It is often argued that, in future, the ideas and imagination of countries like the United Kingdom will be their greatest asset. Indeed, UK government figures reveal that the UK's creative industries account for over a million jobs and brought in £112.5 billion to the UK economy (DCMS Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001), although the data sets underlying these figures are open to question.
Alternative definitions
A wide variety of definitions of the creative industries have been adopted as a growing number of national and international agencies have become aware of their economic significance.
Evolution of the DCMS framework
An earlier DCMS definition provides for:
The 2001 definition recognised fourteen creative sectors
More recent publications, for example the DCMS Creative Industries Statistical Estimates Statistical Bulletin reduced this to eleven sectors:
- 'Film and Video' became 'Film, Video and Photography
- 'Music' and 'Performing Arts' were combined to form 'Music and the Visual and Performing Arts'
- 'Interactive Leisure Software' was combined with 'Computer Services' to form 'Software, Computer Games and Electronic Publishing'
External links
Queensland University of Technology - Brisbane, Australia:
- QUT Creative Industries Faculty: http://www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au/
- QUT Creative Enterprise Australia: http://www.qut.creativeenterprise.com.au/
- Creative Industries Precinct: http://www.ciprecinct.qut.edu.au/
- Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation: http://www.ici.qut.edu.au/
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Institute for Social Research: http://www.cci.edu.au/
- Australasian CRC for Interaction Design Pty Ltd: http://www.interactiondesign.com.au/
National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries (NIECI), UK:
Department of Culture, Media and Sport, UK: http://www.culture.gov.uk
Allen J Scott 2005, ON HOLLYWOOD: THE PLACE THE INDUSTRY Princeton University Press
Transition Tradition Magazine and Directory of Creative Industry Resources: http://www.transitiontradition.com/
Creative Clusters: International Network and Conference on the Creative Economy: http://www.creativeclusters.com/
T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity: http://www.t-shirtsandsuits.com/
Creative Connexions act as a matchmaker for UK creative businesses and businesses in China and India to help businesses grow and expand internationally: http://www.creativeconnexions.com
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