Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

Initially, the purpose was to identify a reliable and comparableindicator to assess the economic impact of the creativeeconomy; one that could be further elaborated as more dataare generated and that will also act as a framework for, and astimulus to, new data collection. The field is confusing due tothe multiple measures and definitions already available, andthe fact that most are nationally or culturally specific. Mostof the indicators that have been used so far relate to employmentor time spent on cultural activities. The focus in thisreport is to highlight the role of trade, with a view to shapinga schema for facilitating comparison across countries andallowing comparison of the contribution of the creative economyto that of other sectors.This effort builds upon work carried out bythe UNESCO Institute for Statistics in developingan international framework for cultural statistics.The institute’s approach has two characteristics.First, it explores the sectoral breadth and the depthof the cultural domains. Breadth refers to the activitiesincluded, while depth deals with stages of acultural cycle (see figure 4.1). The second characteristicof this model is the notion of a nested matrixcovering different aspects related to culture, as illustratedin Figure 4.1. A set of activities is defined asnecessary for international agreement althoughthere are also a number of alternative data sets(from a predefined list) that can be developed byindividual countries based on need and as resourcesbecome available. In the case of the UNCTADFigure 4.1model presented in the Creative Economy Reports, a coregroup of creative goods and services and trade indicatorswere identified as the core, and this minimal set of data canbe gradually expanded and refined with more specific datasets tailored to the needs of different countries and the purposeof the analysis. This model is already running at theUNCTAD global database for trade in creative goods andservices, 2 which is the source of all trade data presentedin chapter 5 and the annex of this report. TheUNESCO framework and the UNCTAD model arecomplementary and can run in parallel depending on theavailability of official data.Cultural cycleCONSUMPTION /PARTICIPATIONEXHIBITION / RECEPTIONTRANSMISSIONSource: UNESCO (2009)CREATIONPRODUCTIONDISSEMINATION4Towards an evidence-based assessment of the creative economy4.3 The challenge of building an operational modelof the creative economyEstablishing a benchmark to measure the creativeindustries is particularly problematic owing to a range of definitionalproblems — from the conceptual to the practical.At the conceptual level, the main challenge is to determineboundaries between arts, culture and industry. Traditionallythis division was based on commercial factors, commonlyassociated with the provision of profitable or non-profitablefunds (see figure 4.2). However, these boundaries are rapidlyeroding. Indeed, the contemporary creative economy cutsacross the arts, culture, industry, business and technology. Itis a complex hybrid structure that conventional methodologiescannot easily capture and measure.The case of art crafts illustrates the paradox ofcreative industries in the developing world. Art crafts goodsmay be mass-produced as part of a tourist strategy;however, their value lies in their local production or localidentification for visitors. Mass production of art craftsgoods for tourism may seem like a contradiction in terms,2 The “UNCTAD Global Database on the Creative Economy” can be easily publicly accessed at http://www.unctad.org/creative-economy.CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 201097