The creative economy where did it come from and where is it going?

Abstract

This chapter emphasises the politically experimental, contingent nature of the uncharted territory of raising the profile of an eclectic jumble of generally IP-based, culturally-rooted businesses that governments and banks had conspicuously failed to understand or take seriously as part of the economy. In the past 20 years, there has been intense debate, major statistical challenges, and wide take-up of creative industries around the world. There are structural complexities: are creative industries typified by freelancers and just-in-time enterprises, or by some of the largest corporations in the world? Or both? Are the key policy actors and impacts to be found at the municipal level rather than the national level? This chapter sees an increasingly important creative economy developing alongside the ‘machine economy’.