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Stimulated by the ‘New
Labour’ government in the 1990s,
the economic role and function of
the UK’s creative ndustries aroused
international interest. Chris Smith,
Britain’s New Labour Secretary of
State for Culture, Media and Sport,
confi rmed early in his ministry
that the creative industries were a
growth sector of the UK economy,
saying ‘It is incumbent on the
government, in partnership with
industry, to take active steps to
promote economic growth in the
creative and cultural sector. If we
do not do so, then others will reap
the economic reward’. (Creative
Industries Task Force 1998)
As a result, the creative industry
concept has been set out in one
of four key policy themes for the
Department for Culture, Media
and Sport (DCMS) economic value.
The other three themes, access,
excellence, and education, are
perhaps the predictable interests
of any Labour government.
It does seem, however, that
the theme of economic value is a
maturing of the Thatcherite ethos,
stressing effi ciency, effectiveness,
value for money, and market forces.
Smith reinforces this interpretation: ‘ensuring that the full economic
and employment impact of
the whole range of creative industries
is acknowledged and assisted
by government’. (Smith 1998)
The DCMS’s interest and engagement
with the creative industries,
through the establishment of
the Creative Industries Task Force
(CITF), chaired by the Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and
Sport, cannot be seen as anything
other than a direct engagement by
government in creative activity for
economic gain.
Through the Creative Industries
Task Force, the government
then set about defi ning what
they meant by the term ‘creative
industries’.
The concept temmed
from an interest in the knowledge
economy, and the defi nition was
largely pragmatic; ‘those activities
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’. (Creative
Industries Task Force 1998)
The sectors dentified within
this framework are: ‘advertising,
architecture, the art and antiques
market, crafts, design, designer
fashion, fi lm, interactive leisure
software, music, the performing
arts, publishing, software,
television and radio’. (Creative
Industries Task Force 1998)
These sub-sectors would not
necessarily recognize themselves
as creative industries, for example
architecture has much more in
common with construction than
it does with the arts and antiques
trade. This shows that the idea is a
policy construct, which has yet to
be recognized by those working in
the fi eld.
The concept of the creative industries
has more in common with
the emerging global economic interest
in the knowledge economy,
This is typifi ed in ‘The Independents:
Britain’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs’,
Leadbetter & Oakley, 1999) The
creative economy, How People make
money from ideas, (Hopkins; 2001:
xiii) and, Creative Industries: Contracts
between Arts and Commerce, (Caves,
2000) with our engagement with
copyright, patent, trademark and
contracts mechanisms.
What is of interest in a creative
industries ‘construct’ is that it
provides a framework for engaging
with both public and private
sectors in a fairer way, establishing
cultural activity as new industry,
and engaging with convergence
arguments generated through
advances in technology. This leads
to a reassessment of the traditional
forms of government intervention
in support of the arts and
culture as described in Creating
a Sustainable Culture for Everybody
(The Reformer, Centre for Reform,
Roodhouse 2002).
These and other related issues are
to be investigated in the Creative
Industries Journal.
{
FURTHER READING
Creative Industries Journal
Edited by Simon Roodhouse
Subscription: Three Issues
£30 Personal / £210 Institutional
ISSN 1471-5880 / Volume 1, 2009
The scope of the journal is a global one, aimed at those studying and practicing
activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and
talent, and which have a potential for wealth creation. These activities
primarily take place in advertising, architecture, the art and antiques
market, crafts, design, fashion, fi lm, interactive leisure software, music,
the performing arts, publishing, television and radio. The journal provides
a forum to challenge defi nitional assumptions, advance the social, economic,
cultural, and political understanding and engagement with the
creative industries at local, national and trans-national levels. The journal
welcomes articles based on a critical engagement with the creative industries
concept from theoretical and practice perspectives. In addition
it will set out to encourage critical writing on private sector activity as
well as the publicly funded.
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