Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

COMPONENT B - MODULE 2Component B - Module 2:Business <strong>Statistics</strong> for Partial Copyright Industries(Craft and Heritage Industries) ObjectiveTo elaborate a methodology and enable the regular production of consistent and reliable data onkey economic data for the manufacturing or partial copyright industries.Methodological NotesThe distinguishing characteristic common to all cultural industries is the involvement of humanskills and knowledge in the production process. There is no international standardized classificationsystem based on the degree of the involvement of human skills in the production process, andexisting statistical systems cannot distinguish sufficiently between different activities that seemto produce the same kind of output. In order to evaluate the “partial” copyright-based industries’potential contribution to the economy, the standard industry classification systems need tobecome sensitive to the cultural value of manufactured goods and be able to distinguish, forexample, crafts from machine-produced products (e.g. furniture or apparel).The tendency that can be observed in different mapping studies to increasingly base the definitionof cultural industries on an analysis of the processes involved in the production and consumptionof cultural goods, rather than on a distinction between different categories of goods, representsan effort to recognize this aspect of the cultural industries.Unlike most of the activities targeted in Module 1, where the correspondence between standardindustry classifications and the core copyright industries is relatively unproblematic, the economicactivities targeted in Module 2 are not fully captured in existing international activity/productclassifications. Thus, consistent statistical data for the manufacturing or “partial” copyright-basedindustries such as architecture, crafts, design, and heritage industries, rarely exist in a sufficientlyaggregated form. For a list of ISIC codes related to cultural industries, refer to Annex 1 to thisdocument.Some primary data collection activities are therefore foreseen as part of Module 2. As primary datacollection is both time and resource demanding, it is proposed initially to limit the scope of thedata activities in Module 2, to build capacity and keep the costs manageable.Consequently, and in response to widespread demand from Asia-Pacific countries for a deeperunderstanding of how to utilize the immediate potential for economic growth linked to the craftsand heritage sectors as a strategy for poverty reduction and community vitalization, Module 2 hasbeen elaborated with a focus on this sub-sector of the partial copyright industries. However, eachcountry will have to make decisions concerning the appropriateness of this choice, and the extentand principles for sampling in the implementation of Module 2.Module 2 seeks to overcome two fundamental methodological challenges to data collection onthe manufacturing or partial copyright industries, namely:–existing standard industry classification systems are not sensitive to the cultural value of. Heritage industries are defined here as the manufacturing industries producing products by using traditionalcraftsmanship/skill, design and input materials.29