>> 1.1 DEFINITIONS
AND TERMINOLOGY
1.1.1 CREATIVE ECONOMY
The term “creative economy” was popularized in 2001
by the British writer and media manager John
Howkins, who applied it to 15 industries extending
from the arts to science and technology. According to
Howkins’ estimates, this creative economy was worth US$2.2 trillion worldwide in 2000 and growing at an annual
rate of 5 per cent. The notion is and remains a very broad
one as it embraces not only cultural goods and services,
but also toys and games and the entire domain of
“research and development” (R&D). Therefore, while
recognizing cultural activities and processes as the core
of a powerful new economy, it is also concerned with
manifestations of creativity in domains that would not be
understood as “cultural”. Before exploring the implications
of this broader reading of creativity, however, it is important
to examine the other two terms used in this Report.
1.1.4 CULTURAL CREATIVITY
AND INNOVATION
Critics of the creative industries agenda, and a fortiori of
creative economy thinking, find that the terms tend to blur
the boundaries between “creativity” in a very general
sense and the expressive qualities that characterize cultural
goods and services. They also find that the term “creativity”
is used far too broadly. It is true of course that the
term “creativity” itself has always been open to multiple
definitions, and there have never been as many as there
are today. Even in the domain of psychology, where individual
creativity has been most widely studied, there is
little agreement as to its nature and precise location, or
whether it is an attribute of people or a process.
In a recent variant of creative economy thinking, some
argue that the cultural and creative industries not only
drive growth through the creation of value, but have also
become key elements of the innovation system of the
entire economy. According to this viewpoint, their primary
significance stems not only from the contribution of creative
industries to economic value, but also from the ways
in which they stimulate the emergence of new ideas or
technologies, and the processes of transformative change.
The creative economy should be seen, therefore, “as a
complex system that derives its ‘economic value’ from the
facilitation of economic evolution – a system that manufactures
attention, complexity, identity and adaptation
though the primary resource of creativity.”3 In this view,
the cultural and creative industries are trailblazers, nurturing
overarching societal dispositions which stimulate
creativity and innovation, working to the benefit of all.
Critics point out, however, that the mechanisms enabling
this creativity to radiate are never clearly identified, although it seems entirely plausible that cultural expressions
can be a source of ideas, stories and images that
can be reproduced in other forms in different economic
sectors. Recent analyses of input-output tables find only
weak evidence that firms with supply chain links to firms
in the creative industries are more innovative than those
with no such links, but say nothing about what takes place
in these engagements, and hence offer no clues as to
causality.4 It may simply be that more innovative firms
buy more creative industry inputs, such as design,
branding or advertising.
It is difficult to argue, therefore, that all aspects of economic,
social or political creativity are generated uniquely – or
even principally – by cultural and creative industry
processes themselves. For this reason, the term ‘creative
economy’ will be used in this Report to privilege activities
involving cultural creativity and/or innovation. The bulk of
the case studies and examples are therefore drawn from
activities that could be also classified as cultural industries
in order to uncover the increasingly symbiotic relationships
between culture, economy and place. The emancipatory
social potential of the latter is implicit in their very constitution
and the wellspring of expression is itself a means to
forms of liberation. This potential cannot be separated
from factors that underpin the success of the creative
industries in purely economic terms.