DEMOCRACIA

the knowledge economy focuses on research and development, on education and
on so-called knowledge workers. In such an economy knowledge is the scarce
good. The creative economy is believed to be the next stage.
A creative economy is about ideas and images. It is about meanings. Music
is a good example. Music is sound and as such intangible and difficult to grasp.
Music has to be meaningful to be heard. Once it is heard, it may attract more and
more attention. The music involves transactions of all kinds, but is about so much
more. The same is true for design, architecture, fashion, games, art, the internet,
knowledge, communities, religion and so much more. All these goods acquire their
value beyond the economic transactions. GDP does not account for that value.
Even though creativity will generate financial revenue, goods like music,
clothes, movies, books, and performances are creative because they generate
mainly creative value. The direct costs of production (think of material, input of
machines, and labor) constitute only a fraction of their price; people pay mainly
for the image that they represent, the label, their meanings. The value added is
mainly imaginary, that is, in the minds of people. To do justice to the creative
economy we need to break from the confines of traditional economic thinking.
By speaking in terms of a creative economy, the discussion will inevitably
focus on the conditions that stimulate creative work. After all, a creative economy
represents creative work. Creative work requires creative workers. Creativity is its
driving force. How then does creativity come about? It is a question that preoccupies
us researchers. In a standard perspective creativity might be considered a force
of production that is needed besides capital, labor and other inputs to generate
creative products and services. The general assumption is that individuals are
creative so creativity works by way of creative workers. New insights render such
a perspective obsolete and false.
15
As numerous researchers have shown creativity comes about in a creative
environment. No matter how creative individuals may be, their efforts will
become little to nothing if they do not find the right response to their ideas. That
is why cultural economists have embraced the notion of the creative commons.
The commons refers to a shared space to which people and organizations have
access if they participate in the practices that make up the commons. The usual
association is with the commons that surround villages to which all villagers
have access for example to let their sheep graze. The creative commons consist of
creative practices.
A creative commons exists because people and organizations participate,
contribute and benefit. A commons, therefore, requires a practice that constitutes
it. Contributions are critical as without them the commons will be depleted.
Contributions are elements of the practice; in case of creative commons they often
ECONOMIA CRIATIVA, CULTURA E POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS