Introduction
Technology and creativity seem to be two core constructs that have dominated recent debates for understanding the driving forces in twenty-first-century economies, and in particular capitalist economies, debated under such terms as âExperience Economy â (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) or âName Economy â (Moeran, 2003) or the more general term âNew Economy â to mention but a few of the terms coined. On the connection between technology and creativity, Lampel, Shamsie and Lant (2006) outline their view on the role of technology in the evolution of the cultural industries by stating that,
Cultural industries owe their existence to a series of technical innovations such as electrical sound recording, motion picture photography, television broadcasting and the Internet. These technologies opened new frontiers that grew into great industries. The expansion phase, however, was championed not by the technologically knowledgeable, but by the creative and business talent. (Lampel et al. 2006: 12)
Thus, emphasizing the significance of the technology as a driver, but not as an end in itself, Lampel et al. (2006) also emphasize the importance of content and that the technology at the end of the day is in the minds and hands of creative individuals and business organizations. The editors sympathize and concur with this view, but also propose that it is important, nonetheless, to understand the implications and influence on creative and cultural industries of technological advances , especially recent digital technologies , which have had far-ranging and rapidly evolving impact. This volume attempts to shed light on these changes, while still placing them in the broader historical, institutional, cultural and economic context in which these industries operate.
Recent economic transformation, technological advances and globalization seem to continue to alter how organizations and individuals define and organize work and how societies consume what organizations and individuals produce. The development of the Internet, in particular, has played an increasingly important role in such economic and sociocultural change. An array of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools has allowed for increased digitalization of information media and social interactions, and consumers are turning to digitally mediated communication in their social and professional connectivity, decision-making as well as to digital channels for consumption (Munar et al. 2013).
These recent technological advances have increasingly influenced organizations and individuals in creative industries, by leading to a âdisintermediationâ and resulted in a loss of power of traditional actors, such as critics and producers (Hirsch & Gruber, 2015), as well as in an increased power of consumers. Indeed, the development has taken place by bringing (traditionally conceived) passive consumers of creative products to being active agents in the creative process . This takes place through different processes and developments. For example, by opening up new opportunities for collaborations and by offering new ways of consuming cultural products (Munar & GyimĂłthy, 2013). Examples of these changes include for instance the high-end restaurant industry1 where diners post online comments on their experiences on platforms such as TripAdvisor, influencing restaurantsâ reputation and reducing the traditional impact of criticsâ reviews (MĂźller, 2018). In music and performing arts, online platforms such as YouTube give artists the opportunity to publish their music and contents online entering into a direct contact with the audiences.
The current digitalization has also pushed a deinstitutionalization of media conglomerates, which leads to new opportunities for creators to reach wider audiences (Hirsch & Gruber, 2015). Furthermore, new business models, made possible by digital technologies , allow creators to generate and appropriate more value from their own work. Social media platforms grow by creating value from usersâ contributions. This is made possible due to the digitization of, for example, text, sound and images. Users contribute with knowledge and creativity in a fast-expanding global uploadâdownload phenomenon, and user-generated content (UGC) has become massively popular, shaping and changing the public perception of products and organizations. Thus, ICT and social media change the traditional production function to co-create value across historical producerâconsumer boundaries and redefine the role of intermediaries , gatekeepers and experts, which has greater implications in the creative industries than in others, due to their very nature, described below.
Creative Industries: Creativity at the Center
The broad term âcreative industriesâ refers to a number of sectors that derive value through the creativity involved in the products developed and the processes used (Jones, Lorenzen, & Sapsed, 2015). These industries, for example, such as architecture, advertising, fashion, design, film, the fine arts and haute cuisine, encompass individuals and organizations that produce, develop and distribute products or experiences that convey symbolic and aesthetic value (Caves, 2000; Lampel et al., 2006). Several studies have tried to understand what industries should be seen as creative, and there has been a lot of debate around the use of the term âcreativeâ versus âcultural industry,â with several scholars agreeing on the view of cultural industries as a subset of creative industries (Jones et al. , 2015). In his influential work, âCreative industries: Contracts between art and commerce,â the economist Richard Caves (2000) suggested a number of properties defining what characterizes creative industriesââNobody knows,â âArt for artâs sake,â âMotley crew,â âInfinite variety,â âA list/B list,â âTime fliesâ and âArs longaâ (Caves, 2000: 2â10)âin an attempt to define and capture the creative industries. Based on these properties, Caves came up with the following list of creative industries,
They include book and magazine publishing, the visual arts (painting, sculpture), the performing arts (theatre , opera, concerts, dance), sounds recordings, cinema and TV films, even fashion and toys and games. (Caves, 2000: 1)
In spite of this ground-breaking and influential work, Cavesâ list from 2000 also illustrates very well the problem of such a list. Rather than asking, âwhat is the creative industries?â another approach (and probably a more interesting question to ask) is to contextualize to a particular time and placeââwho is considering what goods and activities to be creative expressions and therefore belonging to the creative industries?â Therefore no final or universal list of the creative industries makes sense or could meaningfully be listed, as it is a social construction and a dynamic one at that. Creative industries develop due to industry change and become more (or less) artistic and experience-driven over time (e.g., the culinary field) and new industries emerge driven by new technologies (e.g., video games and virtual reality). Finally, what is considered to belong to the category of creative industries is ...