OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
the operation of heritage sites employed 0.4% of the work force, the number
of jobs in the economy that transformed heritage resources into creative ones
totalled roughly 3%.
As the importance of culture is being recognised, culture is also being redefined.
• Under the main statistical systems in use today, the core of cultural activities
is made up of a conventional package including live performances, plastic arts
and architectural heritage, with certain limitations on recognition of the cinema.
• Along with this nucleus is the now-traditional notion of cultural industries:
audiovisual productions, records and disks, and books.
• Lastly, the growing importance of cultural products – art crafts, fashion, digital
imagery, etc. – combining aesthetic value with utilitarian functionality is creating
a new frontier. Here, culture becomes a source of intermediate consumption,
because the production of such goods mobilises cultural resources, and an object
of final consumption, because cultural products are in demand for their cultural
dimension (design objects, fashion, musical instruments, architecture, video
games, advertising, etc.). Here one frequently hears about “creative industries”,
which are currently at the outer limits of cultural activities.
A new factor for local development
While culture’s contribution is traditionally analysed nation-wide, it can be
examined at the local level as well. Today everyone recognises the importance of cultural
facilities to the life of a neighbourhood, enhancing the image of a territory, and the
benefits in terms of jobs and income generated by the tourist appeal of monuments,
expositions and festivals. Apart from specific, individual examples, culture would appear
to play a more fundamental role.
Territories develop from an export base or a nucleus of growth, which in many
cases involves a raw material or manufacturing industry that no longer exists. As soon
as this basis for development is gone, another one needs to be identified; it was in
this way that culture was seen as a basis for development through tourism.
The particular nature of local resources and know-how influences how the products
constituting the new cultural economy are brought up to date. These products bear
the symbols of the territories in which they are produced insofar as they incorporate
their artistic knowledge and know-how, giving rise to the notion of “idiosyncratic”
products. Culture no longer contributes to local development only by attracting
tourists, but by generating exports.
8 CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005