In 1999, the creative industries globally generated revenues of $US2.2 trillion (Flew in Hartley (ed.) 2005. 344). Within creative ‘hotspots’ such as London, the creative industries now rival business services as the key economic sector; having over five hundred thousand Londoners either working directly in the creative industries or in creative careers in varying other industries (OECD. 2001. 12).
According to Hartley (2005. 5), at the core of the creative industries concept are characteristics of innovation, risk-taking, new businesses and start-ups, intangible assets, and the creative application of new technologies.
Leading creative industries theorists; Charles Leadbeater, John Howkins and Richard Florida, have discussed at length about how to generate creative cities and regions and incorporate the creative industries as part of national innovation strategies in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong (cited by Flew in Hartley (ed.) 2005. 344).
These thinkers, particularly Richard Florida (cited by Flew in Hartley (ed.) 2005. 344) has proposed that we are now in a creative economy, where capitalism is being transformed from within, “from an older corporate-centred system defined by large companies to a more people driven one” in which innovation and new ideas are paramount.
Through a growing importance of innovation, education and training, research and development, investment information communication technologies (ICTs), it becomes clear that in this new economic paradigm there exists a distinct relationship between creativity and innovation. There is also a correlation between this relationship and the development of new products, services, organisational forms, and business processes (Howkins. 2003. 213).
Flew advocates that this innovative environment has most clearly bared fruit in the form of developments of ICT software (in Hartley (ed.) 2005. 344). Further, these developments, such as the speedy diffusion of the Internet, generated an assumption that a new economy has emerged - whose makeup was entirely different from that of the industrial economy of the 20th century.
Therefore, for us the individual creative practitioners to participate and add value to this new economy, we must supply the growing market demand for innovative new ideas. To enrich our society and make a contribution, it has become our responsibility to supply our ideas and collaborate with our peers to expand horizons and capitalise on the vast array of creative opportunities that will spawn from such interactive environments.
References:
Hartley, J. Introduction. In Hartley, J. (ed.) 2005. Creative Industries. Blackwell: Carlton. pp.1-41.
Flew, T. 2005. Creative Economy. In Hartley, J. (ed.) 2005. Creative Industries. Blackwell: Carlton. pp.344-361.
Howkins, J. 2003. The Creative Economy. Penguin: Camberwell.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). 2001. The New Economy: beyond the hype. OECD: Paris.
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2 comments:
An excellent post about ‘The Creative Economy’! In your blog you alluded to the relationship between new media technologies and creativity and innovation, and stated that “at the core of the creative industries concept … [is] the creative application of new technologies”. It is this relationship between media technologies and the creative economy which greatly interests me. As you said “We are now in a creative economy in which innovation and new ideas are paramount”; do you think that in our current society, media technologies enable what we know as creativity, and at the same time, it is creativity which expands and updates media technologies? It would have been very interesting to see you use some examples of innovation that has sparked from the creative industries and the power of that innovation in our current creative economy.
An example that expresses my point about the strong relationship between creativity (or innovation) and media technology advancement is that of professional communication designers. New media technologies and technology in general is crucial to designers, allowing them to create, publish and share their work. While at the same time these designers are taking on a huge role in the expansion of interactivity and produser abilities on the web as they are highly technologically skilled.
If you are interested in this also, I recommend you check out Digital Web Magazine (http://www.digital-web.com/). It is an online magazine created for professional web designers and developers and focuses on innovation in the field. It’s definitely an information source which examines innovation in a prominent area of the creative industries and exemplifies that relationship between new media technologies and creativity.
It’s been a good 2 years since I’ve read about the creative economy, and your blog certainly refreshed my memory. I find it reassuring that, now that I’m in my final year, cities like London have over 500 thousand working in some sort of creative industries job, as you said in your beginning paragraph.
Do you think anywhere in Australia has the potential to have a successful creative economy, such as London’s? As a nation, we’re still growing, particular the creative industries, but we might still be a long way off from being comparable to London. I find that most people I meet still can’t differentiate between creative industries and ‘the arts’, so I personally think we have a long way to go, but at least the future does look bright.
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