The political economy of ‘creative industries’

Abstract

This article critically examines the fundamental premise of the creative industries discourse: human creativity as a distinctive input in the production process is the core source of economic value generation. It points out that this discourse emerged within the political-economic context of our time where creativity and knowledge are celebrated, while human labour itself as a factor of production and social force is increasingly de-legitimised and marginalised. The article argues that the radical potential in the discourse (the labour-value nexus) has failed to be recognised, and asks how it can be rediscovered and linked to contemporary socio-economic debates. Turning its attention to the creativity residing in the cultural sector, this article also argues that we should better understand its economic characteristics (productivity-low) and social consequences (diversity-high), and their implications for cultural policy.

Hope labour and the psychic life of cultural work

“…(Digital artist and sculptor,Female,29) The artist's innate creative impulse is deployed as something which both confirms and disrupts the neoliberal subject. By placing some production beyond the economic (Lee, 2017), the subject restores the primacy of art. Yet the value of art itself is couched within an economic framework, a response to a perceived neglect of artistic labour.…”

Whose cultural value? Representation, power and creative industries

“…The debate around 'cultural value' has been a prominent feature of both scholarly and policy debates around arts and creative industries policy over the past 15 years. A significant strand of work in this area has been concerned with the ways in which 'economic value' (usually in the guise of 'economic impact', or contribution to the economic growth agenda) seems to have too often overshadowed other forms of value-cultural, social, aesthetic-in policy discussion (Belfiore 2015;Caust 2003;Crossick and Kaszynska 2016;Harvie 2013;Scott 2014), and most notably, in relation to the 'creative industries' (Banks 2015(Banks , 2017Lee 2017;Schlesinger 2007). There has been, over the past ten years or so, a renewed interest in articulating the non-economic value of culture and advocating for more 'holistic' approaches (Donovan 2013) and for 'non-reductionist' cultural economics methods (Bakhshi, Freeman, and Hitchen 2013).…”

“…However, notwithstanding this wave of critical reflection, it is beyond question that the strategic positioning of the cultural and creative sector as pivotal to Britain's economic recovery postfinancial crash, and of the creative economy as the key to future prosperity and growth for Britain in the uncertain post-Brexit economic scenario, is a key feature of current policy discourse (CEBR 2013;Doyle 2016;Henley 2016;Hesmondhalgh et al 2015;Lee 2017;Neelands et al 2015;Newsinger 2015).…”

Índice de potencialidad de las industrias culturales y creativas en México. Un marco de referencia para las políticas de comunicación y cultura

“…En el caso de los fenómenos globales, el impacto de las industrias creativas en las políticas de comunicación y cultura requiere ser revisado a partir de una óptica que cuestione un discurso donde se propone que "la creatividad, las habilidades, los talentos individuales pueden potencializar la riqueza y la creación del empleo por medio de la generación y la explotación de la propiedad intelectual" (DCMS, 1998b). A partir de esto, el copyright y la propiedad intelectual son algunos de los factores sobre los que se construye la denominada "economía en red" que en determinado momento tiene posibilidades de incrementar los procesos de explotación y desigualdades laborales generados por el capitalismo en un contexto digital (Hesmondhalgh, Oakley, Lee y Nisbett, 2015;Lee, 2017).…”