Modelling the cultural industries

Abstract

Alternative definitions of the cultural industries lead to the construction of different models of the cultural production sector of the economy and hence to a different array of specific industries which are contained within the sector. In turn this implies not just differing estimates of the contribution of the cultural industries to output and employment in the economy but also significant differences in the way economic analysis can be applied to the cultural sector as a whole. This paper begins by discussing the way in which an economic approach to interpreting the scope of the creative and cultural industries can lead to a reasonable basis for defining them. It then goes on to examine the content of six distinct models of these industries, asking the question: is it possible to find a common core group of industries on which all of the models agree? The paper then considers the implications of the models for economic analysis of the cultural sector, and finishes with some conclusions for cultural policy.

Keywords:

• cultural industries
• cultural economics
• cultural policy

Acknowledgements

Some parts of this paper draw upon material first presented: at a panel session on the cultural industries at the 14th International Conference of the Association for Cultural Economics International, Vienna, 6–8 July 2006; at a Seminar on New Directions in Research: Substance, Method and Critique, Edinburgh, 11–12 January 2007; at a conference on Culture, Politics and Policies, Université Charles de Gaulle Lille, 15–17 March 2007; and at meetings preparing draft contributions for the Creative Economy Report 2008 at UNCTAD, Geneva, 8 March and 11–12 July 2007. With the usual caveat, I am grateful to participants at all these meetings for helpful discussions, and to two anonymous referees for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. See www.unesco.org/culture

2. For a fuller discussion, see McCain (2006), Throsby (2006).

3. Note, however, that although there may be broad agreement that cultural value can be looked to as a signifier of a cultural good, there are differing interpretations of how it should be assessed. For example, adopting an extended view of popular culture widens considerably the range of products to which cultural value might be attached, to the point in the limit where everything has cultural value and the concept becomes meaningless.

4. Note that for some of the models in Table 1 industry classifications have been condensed and terminology standardised.

5. An example of an empirical application of input‐output analysis to the cultural sector can be found in Bryan et al. (2000).

6. Work is currently underway on the possibilities for developing satellite accounts for culture at Statistics Finland in Helsinki, and at Convenio Andrés Bello in Bogota for Latin American countries.

7. See especially the outcomes from a UNESCO conference held in Nagaur, India in 2005 to discuss the role of the cultural industries in economic development. The meeting adopted the ‘Jodhpur Consensus’; see UNESCO Bangkok (2007).