Challenges and strategies of local cultural cluster promotion policies in Korea

Abstract

An evaluation of the 5-year performance of the eight designated Korean cities as (or as the candidates for) local cultural industrial complexes shows a creation/relocation of cultural industrial firms at least to some degree. But the expectation of specialisation was not satisfied. Most firms were home-grown, with a weak linkage to those in Seoul. This was not only the case in small cities, but also in large metropolitan cities. The distance from Seoul was a more influential factor in the intensity of the linkage than the size of cities. This paper strategically suggests the four types of evolutionary paths of local cultural clusters for realistic goal setting. Non-local networks are also emphasised.

Keywords:

• cultural industries
• local clusters
• government intervention
• non-local networks
• evolutionary path

Notes

The terms ‘cultural industries’ and ‘creative industries’ are used interchangeably in this paper.

The MCT was changed to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2008.

As a member of the inter-rim evaluation research project, Choo (2007) points out four problems after the evaluation: too much emphasis on the role as a balanced development tool, insufficient consideration of the culture industry itself, central government-dominated policy for artificial clusters, and the lack of strong tools for enhancing the capability of regional culture industry.

In this study, cultural industries are represented by specific two sub-sectors including digital design and craft metalwork.

While the term of the Darwinian (hands-off) approach was used in the study by Brown et al. (2000), the term of the proactive approach was named for the comparison by the author.

Following the guidelines of the Korea Culture and Content Agency (Lim et al., 2006), 10 industries are defined as cultural industries: publishing, cartoon, music, game, film, animation, broadcasting, advertising, license (character), and E-contents. In the survey for this research, E-content firms are limited to those relevant to edutainment on the Internet and those of mobile contents.

As a matter of fact, most Korean parents expect their children to enter the universities in Seoul. There is a tendency that brilliant students in provincial areas go to Seoul when they graduate from high schools.

Sunk cost means the cost already incurred which cannot be recovered regardless of future events.