Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

for cultural statistics that will replace the existing international standard, the 1986 UNESCOframework for cultural statistics. The new framework is outlined in a recent document, CreatingGlobal <strong>Statistics</strong> for Culture: Expert Scoping Study (December 2006).As part of these efforts to elaborate a new international framework for cultural statistics, UIS is inthe process of updating the methodology related to the global evolution of the international flowsof cultural goods and services (International Flows of Selected Cultural Goods, 1980-98, UIS, 2000),as well as the identification of indicators related to cultural diversity. These last efforts have beendeveloped hand in hand with the work on the newly adopted 2005 UNESCO Convention on theProtection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.It is necessary to:... map the diversity of activities within the cultural sector. That is, to use current output data togenerate a checklist for the existence or not of particular cultural activities within countries/regions.The checklist could examine domains, individual activities, elements of the production chain, orthe breadth of activities within the formal and the informal economy, etc. This approach would,for instance, enable an understanding of the specialisation of a given country and whether it wasconcentrated in particular domains/activities. The checklist would be based on establishing anominal threshold in each case to provide a simple binary, ‘yes/no’ answer.This approach also lends itself to comparative analysis in the form of a matrix or, more properly,a series of matrices, in which individual countries would be plotted on one side and domains/industries/production chain functions etc. would be plotted on the other axis. This would allowfor an immediate appreciation of cultural diversity globally, or within a regional bloc or group ofcountries.As such, it would be a form of measurement that would inform policy by illustrating where thebalance of activities lies from country to country; where the lack of breadth or lack of productionchain activities lies. This would then enable policy makers within a country to strategically considerwhich areas needed investment/in which areas the country may be vulnerable, and so on.(Creating Global <strong>Statistics</strong> for Culture: Expert Scoping Study, unpublished material, UIS, Montreal,December 2006, (p. 76))The new standard that will be presented in 2009 remains primarily an economic standard. Theeconomic model has been extended in a number of areas, however, to capture a wider image ofboth the economic and social aspects of culture (e.g. social participation, traditional knowledge,education, and heritage). Some of the proposed new indicators are listed in Table 2 (p. 14).Though the focus on cultural industries is narrower than the scope of the new framework forcultural statistics, the indicators of the Framework for <strong>Statistics</strong> on Cultural Industries are fully in linewith this new framework.The Framework for <strong>Statistics</strong> on Cultural Industries is based on a sector approach that defines thecultural industries as industries that produce tangible or intangible artistic and creative outputs,and which have a potential for wealth creation and income generation through the exploitationof cultural assets and the production of knowledge-based goods and services, both traditionaland contemporary. (Note that the definition of cultural industries applied in the development ofthe four statistical data modules under Component B is closely modeled on the identification ofInternational Standard Industry Classification (ISIC) codes related to these outputs as proposed byWIPO. However, each module elaborates on these definitions to get more accurate and detailed13