During the last two decades many reports on the economic importance of the Creative Industries have been published throughout Europe. This classifying and measuring of the Creative Industries has continually produced many debates and discussions, and some have had productive outcomes.
The authors of Cultural Policy in the Time of the Creative Industries maintain that now is the right time to “develop equally influential classifications and metrics for the Cultural Industries”.
We believe this document provocation opens up an interesting debate for future discussion regarding an ‘official’ definition of the cultural sector in relation to creative industries policy across Europe.
“By having two sets of definitions and statistics from government alongside each other, it will also force us to think about the possible tensions between the cultural and creative industries, and more generally the relationship between culture and creativity, addressing a longstanding concern of critics of the creative industries concept like Kate Oakley and Justin O’Connor, who argue that “when it is simply a question of ‘creativity’ any tension between cultural and economic logics disappears.” (Oakley and O’Connor, 2015).
A related article.