Dominic Power Uppsala University, Sweden dominic'powerkultgeog'uu'se

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Dominic Power Uppsala University,
Swedendominic.power_at_kultgeog.uu.se
Cultural Industries in Scandinavia Amsterdam
Institute for Metropolitan and International
Development Studies, University of Amsterdam,
26th January 2005
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The cultural economy and the new dynamics of
competition you have heard it before but

• There is a realization in the Nordic countries
  that
• Products and markets are changing we can no
  longer only compete on price, quality or
  technology design, aesthetics and experiences
  sell, and create added value and growth
• People are changing the post-materialist
  generation dont want factory jobs and the ones
  born now will not even have the option

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• How do firms/economies cope with this?
• They outsource mass production and increasingly
  low grade services
• They change the way they compete they attempt to
  create monopolistic competition (Chamberlain)
• New commercial opportunities arise e.g. computer
  games, ice hotels knowledge and culture based
  goods and services

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At the cutting edge of the new economy The
cultural industries

• Cultural industries 3 main characteristics
• The value of products/services is their
  symbolic/experiential/status role
• Whatever the physico-economic constitution
  of such products, the sectors that make them are
  all engaged in the creation of marketable outputs
  whose competitive qualities depend on the fact
  that they function at least in part as personal
  ornaments, modes of social display, aestheticized
  objects, forms of entertainment and distraction,
  or sources of information and self-awareness,
  i.e. as artifacts whose psychic gratification to
  the consumer is high relative to utilitarian
  purpose (Scott 1997, 323).
• Engels Law
• Tend to agglomerate whilst their products flow
  freely around the world.

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The policy question We know something is
happening but what do we concentrate on? Culture?
Creativity? Intangibles like experience?

• Most attempts in the Nordic countries have
  focused on a combination of an industrial focus
  and a focus on wider changes to the competitive
  environment
• There is an idea in policy circles that cultural
  industries are a key strategic area for
  industrial policy a vanguard for change and
  growth
• This debate has been underpinned by 2 suggestions
  as to why cultural industries may contribute to
  economic growth
• Vibrant cultural economies and cultures create
  spin-offs that are vital to other forms of
  economic growth
• Cultural industries themselves are growing and
  employing more people and firms

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Confusion over the growth contribution and what
to concentrate on (culture, creativity,
experience) has lead to a focus (in Sweden) on
an experience focused growth model
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Conceptual confusion - The result is too many
conflicting figures

• We all agree that
• Significant employers
• Higher than average growth in both employment and
  firm numbers

• BUT Different definitions and methods have a
  profound effect.
• UK 2002 - 1.9 million people worked in the
  creative industries
• European Commission cultural industries - over 7
  million in 2001 in cultural industries
• Japan creative industries 1,8 million people in
  176,000 establishments in 2001 1996-2001 number
  of firms expanded by 3.8 despite a decline in
  the rest of the economy of 5.5.

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A Norwegian study

• Cultural industries employment in 2002 76044
• 3.4 of total employment BUT if we include public
  institutions 3.9

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A Nordic study Power 2003

• Include a few extra codes and categories and
  suddenly the figures jump
• esp. If you include new media and software
  related activities, and retail points/arenas.

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Regional dimensions

• Whatever the measures taken there is undeniable
  evidence of significant levels of regional
  specialization and clustering
• Also considerable evidence that cultural
  industries are heavily oriented towards urban
  areas.

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Employment in municipalities 1999
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Facts and figures?

• There are lies, damned lies and then there are
  statistics
• Industrial statistics are really bad for
  capturing new industries.
• You need to go down to the lowest level and even
  then it is messy and below a certain level
  international comparison is impossible.
• a reasonable compromise between descriptive
  parsimony on the one hand and detailed
  characterization of the cultural economy on the
  other (Scott 2000, 8)
• In starting a new project on European wide
  measures this issue is crucial
• In the future new methods might start from
• Occupational data Ann Markusen
• Individual data Possible in Nordic countries
  but not elsewhere
• Consumer and consumption data the business
  world

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Some concluding thoughts

• Perhaps the best solution to this is to make
  some strategic decisions about what ambitions we
  have
• What are we trying to measure? - boosting the
  figures for political purposes or being
  minimalist
• Are we interested
• In identifying growth industries or new
  opportunities? Economic futures research
• In exploring regional industrial growth dynamics?
  i.e. helping/understanding cultural industries
  that exist in local areas
• Giving support to the spill-over or spin-off
  effects cultural industries might have? i.e.
  seeing them not as separate but as a part of a
  bigger regional picture if so should we start
  with the cultural industries?