News
- 16.05.13 The Chair of the EP CULT committee answers to our call in defense of the ‘Creative Europe’ budget Read more...
- 02.05.13 President of the 'S&D' group in the EP Hannes Swoboda answers to the cultural and creative sectors' concerns about the future budget of Creative Europe Read more...
- 23.04.13 CAE member VVC celebrates 40 years of cultural centres in Flanders! Read more...
- 11.04.13 NEMO publishes letter of concern regarding PSI directive on re-use of public sector information Read more...
- 08.04.13 Letter to President Barroso signed by more than 250 cultural organisations and artists Read more...
- 05.04.13 URGENT - Funding for Creative Europe needs your action Read more...
- 25.03.13 Two exciting internship possibilities at Culture Action Europe! Read more...
- 19.03.13 CAE reacts to the EC communication on Rethinking Education jointly with the Access to Culture Platform and EUCIS-LLL Read more...
- 12.03.13 Internships at Platform for Intercultural Europe Read more...
- 08.03.13 we are more campaign newsletter #12 Read more...
- 01.03.13 COMIX4 Project Read more...
- 12.02.13 Culture Action Europe reacts to Council agreement on future EU budget Read more...
- 05.02.13 Second Letter to EU Heads of State or government Read more...
- 25.01.13 The Creative Clash Final Conference will take place on 19 March 2013 at the Goethe Institut in Brussels Read more...
- 20.12.12 we are more campaign #11 Read more...
- 30.11.12 CAE joined forces with the CSCG in a letter to EU leaders Read more...
- 21.11.12 Letter to EU Heads of State and Governments on the occasion of the extraordinary EU summit 22-23 November 2012 Read more...
- 08.11.12 Culture Action Europe values Ms Silvia Costa’s report on Creative Europe and calls on the EU institutions to support the proposed budget increase and to reach a first-reading agreement Read more...
- 12.10.12 we are more campagin newsletter #10 Read more...
- 10.10.12 Launch of BOZAR and CAE collaboration Read more...
- 03.10.12 Culture Action Europe’s Conference and General Assembly ‘Act for culture, act for Europe’ – Brussels 9-11 November 2012 Read more...
- 03.10.12 New EC communication on "Promoting cultural and creative sectors for growth and jobs in the EU" Read more...
- 04.09.12 CAE is looking for a new intern Read more...
- 30.07.12 EFA and its partners of the Access to Culture Platform’s Working Group on Audience Participation call for contributions Read more...
- 24.07.12 Tandem – Moldova-European Union-Ukraine video now available online! Read more...
- 23.07.12 we are more campaign newsletter #9 Read more...
- 18.06.12 Sostenuto – Culture as a factor of economic and social innovation: final press conference Read more...
- 24.05.12 VIVA IL LIVE! 4.0 and 2nd ARCI ReAL meeting Read more...
- 22.05.12 European Year of Citizens 2013 Alliance - Manifesto published Read more...
- 22.05.12 Culture Action Europe values the position adopted by the EU Council of Culture Ministers on the Creative Europe programme Read more...
- 21.05.12 Festival «art links/l’art crée du lien», on thursday 24th and Friday 25 th in Brussels Read more...
- 10.05.12 Civil society voices reached the EU Council of Culture Ministers Read more...
- 30.04.12 'we are more' campaign newsletter #8 Read more...
- 11.04.12 Banlieues d'Europe organizes a debate on the we are more campaign Read more...
- 03.04.12 Conference on the role of culture in the inclusion of Roma minorities Read more...
- 22.03.12 Sign petition to save the only public institution for contemporary dance in Slovenia! Read more...
- 01.03.12 Warm welcome to our new Secretary General Luca Bergamo! Read more...
- 22.02.12 'we are more' newsletter #7 Read more...
- 19.12.11 'we are more' newsletter #6 Read more...
- 03.10.11 'we are more' newsletter #5 Read more...
- 16.08.11 Job position at EBLIDA Read more...
- 07.07.11 'we are more' campagin newsletter #4 2011 special edition on budget is now online Read more...
- 14.06.11 Artists and social inclusion: A Greens/EFA conference Read more...
- 26.05.11 'we are more' newsletter #3 Read more...
- 31.03.11 Summary of the position paper on the Culture Programme Read more...
- 22.03.11 Remix the docks! Read more...
- 10.02.11 'we are more' newsletter #2 Read more...
- 16.12.10 Call for organisations to participate in Cultural Cooperation with Moldova and Ukraine Read more...
- 09.12.10 'we are more' campaign: demands on the Culture Programme Read more...
- 09.12.10 'we are more' newsletter #1 Read more...
- 18.10.10 Culture's contribution to social inclusion Read more...
- 12.10.10 'we are more' campaign launched! Read more...
- 22.09.10 Culture Action Europe Newsletter #4 2010 Read more...
- 22.09.10 Reflections on the challenges facing society today and how culture may offer answers to them Read more...
- 06.09.10 LabforCulture reports live from the 'Culture and Policies of Change' conference in Brussels Read more...
- 04.08.10 Members General Assembly and Culture Action Europe Conference 7-9 October 2010 in Brussels Read more...
- 14.07.10 OMC working group reports have been published Read more...
- 17.06.10 Culture Action Europe Newsletter #3 2010 Read more...
- 06.05.10 The Platform for Intercultural Europe is recruting Read more...
- 14.04.10 Culture Action Europe Newsletter #2 2010 Read more...
- 12.04.10 The EU 2020 strategy: analysis and perspectives Read more...
- 31.03.10 Culture Action Europe is looking for a translation intern Read more...
- 29.03.10 Members’ meetings and policy consultation Read more...
- 17.03.10 Already 6 new members in 2010! Read more...
- 10.02.10 Culture Action Europe Newsletter #1 2010 Read more...
- 10.02.10 Renewed EU commitmment to combating poverty and social exclusion – what perspectives for the Year? Read more...
- 08.02.10 EP Hearing – Androulla Vassiliou Commisioner-Desginate for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Read more...
- 14.01.10 Our contribution to the EC consultation on the future EU 2020 strategy Read more...
- 11.01.10 Our contribution to the EC consultation on financial regulation Read more...
- 07.12.09 Culture Action Europe Newsletter #8 Read more...
- 18.08.09 Post elections analysis – to know more about the composition of the new European Parliament and of the new Culture Committee Read more...
| The cultural industries and the economy of culture |
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The cultural industries – culture as business, often very big business – are the policy-makers pets these days, for obvious reasons. But there are also good reasons, less obvious perhaps but crucial nevertheless, why not-for-profit cultural operators should pay attention to them too. Having just edited a 500-page multi-author volume on ‘the cultural economy’, let me try and explain why. Today, an ever-increasing range of symbolic goods and services is being produced and distributed. In the process, the aesthetic has been commodified while the commodity has been aestheticized. While the industrial and the digital mediate practically every cultural process, the segment of the economy that is concerned with such symbolic goods and services mobilizes considerable human, material and technical resources. No wonder that the ‘cultural’ has become a central economic policy issue! Witness the 2006 study The Economy of Culture in Europe done for the European Commission by KEA European Affairs. These developments have also generated the new agenda and discourse of the ‘creative industries.’ The idea of ‘creativity’, that till recently artists had the principal claim on, has been vastly expanded over the last decade. Today, it is applied to a very broad range of activities and professions, many of which are far removed from artistic creation. It is enshrined in the Commission’s 2007 Communication, in which ‘promoting culture as a catalyst for creativity’ is a key strand. But where do we locate ourselves in this ‘creative industries’ agenda? Our activities are neither industrial nor are they for-profit. We’re not arguing here that art and commerce are two opposing worlds, far from it. However, we do want to make the case for engaging with this other world in our own terms. This is the challenge. It has been taken up by analysts who make industry-relevant arguments on behalf of non-industrial, not-for-profit cultural work: our sector is embedded in networks that are interwoven with the creative industries; it develops human capital skills that can be applied in the creative industries and beyond; it includes organisational models and practices that can be used in industry and other domains; it is an attractor of creative individuals and dynamic businesses. Some of these arguments are perhaps overstated. The real problem, though, is less with the ideas themselves and more with the instrumentalizing path they take us down. Do we want to take this path? And surely there are broader reasons to be wary. Should all types of cultural production be justified in terms of economic gain? We may find it tactically useful to use these arguments in our own rhetoric because it is the language policy-makers want to hear. The problem though is that this paradigm obliges us to adopt an essentially neo-liberal worldview. Is this what we believe in? These are some of the reasons why it is important to understand the cultural economy and to reflect both on the impacts it has on non-market forms of cultural activity and new relations between the two that affect artistic work. Recent writings by cultural economists, geographers and other social scientists can help us do this by unpacking the issues involved; some of these writings are cited below. by Yudhishthir Raj Isar, ex-president of Culture Action Europe |