Re-thinking the Creative Economy Through Informality and Social Inclusion: Changing Policy Directions from Latin America

Abstract

This chapter examines whether a focus on the informal creative economy can support peripheral cultural scenes that remain invisible to policy and society. In contexts of extreme poverty and deprivation, mobilising the idea of the ‘creative economy’ can generate resources, interest and support that would otherwise not exist, opening up greater possibilities for cultural producers and artists in shantytowns who are attempting to secure jobs in the cultural and creative sector.