Research Project: Definition of ‘Creative Industries’
To keep my Research Project manageable I’m limiting its scope to the Creative Industries within the UK, in the categories listed below.
A Advertising
B Architecture
C Crafts
D Design
E Designer Fashion
F Film and Video
G Computer Games
H Marketing
I Music
J Performing Arts
K Photography
L Publishing
M Television
N Radio
O Visual arts
P Web development
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20060714 1:49 pm
[...] Are you an employee in the UK Creative Industries? If so, I’d like to invite you to take part in my research on Perceptions of Coaching in the UK Creative Industries, by completing the questionnaire below. [...]
20060714 2:27 pm
You really want antique shop owners and techies who sell accountancy software in your mix? Adding “Computer Services” is what has got the statistics on UK CI jobs growth into such a pickle.
20060715 11:03 am
D’log - on reflection, no I don’t, so I’ve revised the list. Thanks for a useful question.
20070312 1:51 pm
Hi,
I’m curious about this: why is web development considered creative, but the development of, say, a text message voting system is not? What’s special about something with a web front-end? I’m not preparing to shoot you down, I’m genuinely interested!
Richard
20070312 2:08 pm
Hi Richard, I agree that a web front-end doesn’t make you creative! The distinction I’m making here isn’t whether an industry is ‘creative’ or not, but whether it’s considered part of the ‘creative industries’ sector. E.g. the pharmaceuticals industry requires a lot of creativity, but isn’t usually considered part of the creative industries.
There’s a separate debate to be had about whether the creative industries is a useful or valid concept per se…
20070312 2:41 pm
I guess that’s what I’m getting at. Clearly the ‘creative industries’ have some things in common that other industries (possibly with some creativity in them!) don’t. What would you say they are?
20070314 2:25 pm
Personally I think of the creative industries as industries where creativity IS the product rather than a means of creating the product.
E.g. a lot of creativity goes into the development of a new drug or car, but most people probably wouldn’t think of these items as ‘creative artefacts’ - whereas I think most people would say ‘creative artefact’ was an accurate description of a film or novel.
I’m influenced in this by my tutors on the MA in Creative & Media Enterprises at Warwick - who put it in more academically rigorous language:
“‘Creative industries’ produce ’symbolic goods’ (ideas, experiences, images) where value is primarily dependent on the play of symbolic meanings. Their value is dependent on the end user (viewer, audience, reader, consumer) decoding and finding value within these meanings… Furthermore, those who produce ’symbolic goods’ are not necessarily or nor primarily motivated by financial outcomes; if they were, as Anthony Storr (1972, the dynamics of creation) suggests, they might decide to give up being artists and become stockbrokers.’
(Chris Bilton and Ruth Leary, ‘What can managers do for creativity? Brokering creativity in the creative industries’ - International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2002 vol.8(1)pp.49-64)
20070314 6:06 pm
Sounds obvious, now you say it!
Thanks!
20070314 6:16 pm
Well it didn’t strike me as obvious at first, and there will be plenty of people out there who disagree with that definition…
20070319 3:05 pm
I am also looking into a definition of “creative industries”. I am puzzled by the inclusion of the broad category “software” (rather than the narrower Leisure or entertainment software) in many definitions (UK, Norway governments). Do you happen to know the reasoning behind this?
20070322 10:12 am
Hi Janet, yes it has provoked a lot of debate! I don’t know about Norway but here are links for the UK Government’s Creative Industries Mapping Documents -
Creative Industries Mapping Document - 1998
Creative Industries Mapping Document - 2001