INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORIES AND CONCEPTS IN THE CREATIVE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES (CCI)
Charlene YY
Lecture4_61074.pptxCultural Policies and the Creative and Cultural industries
Article 27 UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948: Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts http://www.unesco.org/culture/culture-sector-knowledge-management-tools/10_Info%20Sheet_Right%20to%20Culture.pdf
Politics, government and the Creative and Cultural industries
The cultural and creative industries are closely intertwined with government
The creative economy discourse is political because governments have been the prime movers of perspective.
Public money and politics cannot be separated
The content and contours of politics are inevitably linked to how we—as political and cultural collectives—speak, hear, visualize, and feel about ourselves and others
Governments and cultural policy
“CCIs are involved in the making and circulating of product that have influence on our understanding of the world” (Hesmondhalgh, 2007).
What is policy?
Policy is the “regularising aspects of
politics”
Policy is the result of political processes
Policy is what government does, not what it says it intends to do
Policy consists of courses of action rather than mere decisions
Policy is goal-orientated action
Policy is based on law
Policy can be regulated and measured
Functions of national governments
United Kingdom
People's Republic of China
Policy making institutions
Cultural policy
The idea of cultural policy was developed at UNESCO in the 1960s.
Involves governments setting processes, regulations, legislation and institutions which promote and facilitate cultural diversity and creative expressions.
Cultural policies vary from one country to another but generally aim to improve the accessibility and promote the cultures of all people in a country.
Brief History of Creative Industry versus Cultural Industry Policies in the UK
From ‘The Great Gear Market’ (UK, 1981)….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ekIDJKDRE
(Posers, New Romantics in London, 1981)
…to the global market for creative goods?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IroD_a-bMFU
(UK Creative Industries Council, Promotional Video, 2014)
The 1980s moment
The 1980s GLC (Greater London Council) ‘moment’
Local cultural industries in London and regional cities based on culture and economy
Socially, as much as economically, driven
Left-wing, liberal and ‘progressive’ politically
Local cultural industries
By the mid-1980s provincial cities such as Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield and Liverpool could boast ‘popular culture industries’ and independent cultural production…oriented and balanced to mixed cultural and economic concerns
New Labour 1997
The rise of the creative industries as vital to the ‘new’ UK economy
Chris Smith, Minister for Culture
‘Broadly, it is possible to estimate that nearly 1 million people are employed in [music, film, radio and television]. There are more than 1000 businesses, and the annual turnover of them all, put together, is over 50 billion (…) These industries have always formed an important part of our national life. But they also form an important, and increasingly significant part, of our national economy. It is vital we do not lose sight of this fact, as we chart a way forward for government policy’ (Smith, 1998, p.15)
First wave of DCMS policy
‘Creative Industries Taskforce’
Creative Industries Mapping Document (1998 and 2001)
Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy (2008)
DCMS definition of the creative industries
'The creative industries are those industries that are based on individual creativity, skill and talent’
‘The creative industries are defined as those activities that make money through distinctive design and the application of copyright’.
And this included 13 distinct sectors:
Advertising, architecture, art and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, television and radio.
The shift to creativity…
The main emphasis here, in cultural policy, switched firmly and foundationally to individual ‘talent’ and on making money through developing and exploiting intellectual property.
Garnham – why ‘creative industry’
Pragmatic: to allow the UK to identify and aggregate a whole range of cultural, arts, digital and knowledge production activities under one label….
…to show the world the UK was active and significant in the ‘new economy’
Garnham – why ‘creative industry’
Political: to distance New Labour from the ‘Old’ Left, from socialist/social democratic local authorities, trade unions, working-class politics and issues of representation – all ‘culture’ industry-makers of a particular kind….
..and to embrace the economy, the market, entrepreneurial values and neo-liberalism
More recently?
The ‘creative industries’ discourse dominates discussions of culture and economy
‘Culture is a ‘commodity’ that ‘must pay its way’’
(Maria Miller, Minister of Culture, 2014)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/24/british-culture-commodity-maria-miller
‘we will keep backing our creative industries that support jobs, create opportunities and contribute to the economy’
(David Cameron, PM, 2013)
http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/david-cameron-applauds-uk-s-world-leading-music-industry/054948
‘The hipster is a capitalist’ (Matt Hancock, Culture Minister, 2016)
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/minister-for-digital-and-culture-creative-industries-speech
Manifesto for the Creative Economy
‘The UK’s creative economy is one of its great national strengths, historically deeply rooted and accounting for around one–tenth of the whole economy. It provides jobs for 2.5 million people, more than in financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction. This creative workforce has in recent years grown four times faster than the workforce as a whole.’ (NESTA, 2014)
http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/creative-manifesto-executive-summary.pdf
Creative Industries Council
‘The UK is a world leader when it comes to the creative industries and they play an important role in shaping how the rest of the world perceives the UK. But we are trading in an increasingly competitive marketplace and cannot take our position for granted. Standing still is not an option. We need to take action now to ensure we are inspiring and equipping the next generation of talent, helping creative businesses to start-up and grow and maintaining the UK’s competitiveness against other international markets’
(Nicola Mendelsohn, Co-Chair Creative Industries Council, 2014)
http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/media/243587/cic_report_final-hi-res-.pdf
So…
Why and and how to governments utilise cultural policies?
….and at what cost?
Motivations and roles for government cultural policy
Possible motivations for governments to intervene in culture
National glory/power
Inducement and reward
Placebo
Education
Welfare service
Compensation
Commercial
Order and control
Ideological
Moral
Social/Cohesion
Political
Common sense
Faith
‘Cultural’
Possible roles of government in intervening in culture
Producing mechanisms for cultural choice
Directly providing culture
Supporting cultural production
Supporting cultural distribution
Supporting cultural consumption
Censorship
Propaganda
Destroying/denigrating ‘non acceptable’ cultures
Why?
How?
Government cultural policy models
Functions of policy:-
Intrinsic – ‘art’ based reasons
Instrumental – using culture for non-cultural ends
Attachment – linking culture to sources of support
Explicit – directly affecting cultural production/distribution/consumption
Implicit – cultural consequences of other policy aims
What governments do to support CCI?
Why should politicians care about CCI?
Art is political - it reinterprets “what previously was seen and known” so that alternative understandings may emerge.
Reinterpretations reveal existing power relations in society, challenge prevailing paradigms and hegemony.
Government likes definition, clarity and identity but creativity feeds on the undefined and yet known
Cultural identity and heritage is political – disruption of established norms and values is complex to manage
Political manipulation of emotions linked to heritage and identity to gain/maintain power
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-the-british-government-sponsored-the-arts-in-the-first-world-war
Why should government’s care? Soft power
A country’s soft power is its ability to make friends and influence - not through military might, but through its attractive assets.
Soft power rests on its resources of culture, values, and policies
Things that make people love a country rather than fear it; the products of people, institutions and brands.
Key to a nation’s soft power – its culture.
It heritage, histories, media, literature, language, film etc
CCI increasingly important in government foreign policy
Nye, Joseph (2008) Public Diplomacy and Soft Power
https://www.economist.com/china/2017/03/23/china-is-spending-billions-to-make-the-world-love-it
Why should CCI care about politics and government?
Government policy can constrain or enable
Legislation impacts
Distribution of government funding
Everything creatives produce is cultural data that others consume; art is political once it is available to any audience
‘Cultural creatives’ – values led marketing
Good art – film, tv, videogames - can educate and create empathy,
Hostile design - public sphere
Visual impact - collective consciousness
Creative Citizenship engages communities with innovation
Challenge – suspicion of creatives
Indonesia
“In 2006 when the Indonesian government
first started to introduce the concept of
creative industries we met resistance from
the artisans and artists, and culture experts
who thought this meant we were
“commercializing” culture.
We also faced the suspicion of creative
people with their perceptions of
government wanting to intervene and
control, and it took many focused
discussion groups and dialogue to convince
them that we were there to facilitate
and create a conducive environment for
creativity and creative economy to grow.”
Dr Mari Pangestu. Minister of Tourism & Creative Economy
UK
Challenge - creatives and government regulations
Many creatives claim that bureaucracy is drowning the creative spirit
That industry style measurements are inhibiting creative values
That policy and regulation is not fit for the 21st century
“We joined to make spontaneous playful art - not to work three years ahead in a goal-orientated corporate institution where matched funding and value-added output tick-boxes destroy imaginative excess.
Working in the art business becomes a job and not a vocation. Health and safety, child protection, alarm systems, licensing, family friendly badges and employment laws invade with their suffocating culture of inertia and fear. “
John Fox. Welfare State International Theatre Company
Explicitly culturally active ‘governments’
Problematic?
Nazi Germany
Stalinist Soviet Union
Khmer Rouge (Cambodia)
Islamic State (Iraq &Syria)
Acceptable?
France
UK
Australia
Canada
Policy limitations
Governments find it difficult to engage with organisations that are micro, fluid, disaggregated, ‘dis-organised’
Lack of understanding of CCI is endemic.
Traditional interventions that evolve organically are not sufficient for developing globally competitive creative industries.
Governments need to become more strategic
Need interventions that increase the supply and sustainability of creative talent, that encourage demand for and development of local IP, and that foster a creative ecosystem.
Cultural Policies and Night-times Economies in Japan/Tokyo and Germany/Berlin Case Study
