From cultural industries to creative industries and back? Towards clarifying theory and rethinking policy

Abstract

In this paper, I draw attention to the complexities and confusions in the shift in discourse and praxis from “culture industry” to “cultural industries” and then “creative industries.” I examine how this “creative turn” is fraught with challenges, highlighting seven issues in particular: (i) the difficulties in defining and scoping the creative industries; (ii) the challenges in measuring the economic benefits creative industries bring; (iii) the risk that creative industries neglect genuine creativity/culture; (iv) the utopianization of “creative labour”; (v) the risk of valorizing and promoting external expertise over local small- and medium-scale enterprises in the building of “creative industries”; (vi) the danger of overblown expectations for creative industries to serve innovation and the economy, as well as culture and social equity; and (vii) the fallacy that “creative cities” can be designed. I suggest that the move towards creative industries discourse represents a theoretical backslide, and raise the possibility that a return to “cultural industries” would be more beneficial for clarifying our theoretical understanding of the cultural sectors and the creative work that they do, as well as enabling better policymaking.     

Family Problem Solving: A Comparative Study of Adult Children in Puerto Rico and the Upper Midwest

This study examined family problems and problem solving among American Upper Midwest and Puerto Ricans participants. Thematic and chi-square analyses provide a snapshot of how diverse families experience similar macro problems in day-to-day endeavors. Responses to each macro issue or strategy also suggest ways that the two cultural groups relate to family problems differently. Puerto Rico participants described and discussed significantly more communication-related problems and they also identified communicating about the problem less as something they had thought about to resolve the problem than did Upper Midwest participants. The article discusses how micro level values are inherent in macrocultural family problems.     

Cultural Dis/Continuity in African-American and Ghanaian Mothers’ Voices and Identities

With Cultural Continuity Theory as a framework, this study used quantitative (N?=?204) and qualitative (N?=?63) methods to explore how Ghanaian and African-American mothers communicate their motherhood perceptions and identities. Survey, interview, and focus group data obtained from this investigation suggest cultural discontinuity in the rhetoric the participants use to describe their motherhood experiences and identities. Though this multi-method study is meaningful in that it provides a space for the underrepresented voices of African-American and Ghanaian mothers to be heard, it challenges previously held notions of continuity within African-American and African societies. Based on the findings, this study also considers implications relative to the similarities and differences in African-American and Ghanaian motherhood philosophies, and it offers recommendations for future research.     

Evaluating legacies: Research,evidence and the regional impact of the Cultural Olympiad

From the bidding stage onwards, the London 2012 Olympics has been framed by an explicitly instrumental agenda, with objectives including increasing participation in sport in the UK and economic and physical regeneration in host sites, through investment in the Olympic Park and its surrounding infrastructure. The bid also signalled the ambition that London 2012 should be the first Olympics to deliver legacy through a nation-wide cultural programme in the build up to and alongside the Games [Kennell, J. & MacLeod, N. (2008, November 6–8). A memetic framework for the conceptualisation and evaluation of the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Paper presented at the 2nd Bi-annual International Tourism Studies Association conference in Shanghai, China. Retrieved from http://gala.gre.ac.uk/3951/], deliberately putting in place infrastructure for each English region and nation, shortly after the bid's success was announced. The ensuing national Cultural Olympiad, part funded by Legacy Trust UK, was evaluated through a series of research exercises which aimed to document the legacy and impact of the cultural programme. Through the case study of a regional programme in the North West of England, “We Play”, this article considers how evaluation research has been used locally to develop policy stories and legacy narratives which interpret and interact with the changing landscape of arts funding and cultural policy in the UK.     

Measuring cultural value in Canada: From national commissions to a culture satellite account

In Canada, government initiatives for the measurement of cultural value can be traced to the 1949 Royal Commission on National Development in Arts, Letters and Sciences, and later evolved to include more empirical measurement with the Culture Statistics Program (1972) as well as research into the social dimensions of cultural investment. In 2009, Statistics Canada launched a four-year Feasibility Study to culminate in the creation of a Canadian Culture Satellite Account (CSA), an accounting framework to measure the impact of culture, the arts, heritage and sport on the Canadian economy. Taking account of both the recent and broader historical context out of which the CSA emerged, this paper examines its intended use and future plans. The CSA is a useful tool to the Government of Canada in supporting its activities related to the funding of culture, but this paper takes the position that it is not in and of itself a sufficient means for measuring the value of culture in Canada, and so it is best understood as part of a constellation of tools with differing but complementary approaches.     

Assessing cultural values: developing an attitudinal scale

Effective measurement of cultural value is often elusive because of its multidimensional nature. It is also influenced by sociodemographic characteristics (manifest variables) and attitudinal characteristics (latent variables) of populations. While the former is easily available to researchers, the latter has not been fully studied. This paper suggests the use of a cultural worldview scale that was developed to measure cultural attitudes of people, using factor and cluster analysis. Four factors comprise the scale: cultural linkages, recognition of cultural values, cultural loss and preservation of traditions and customs. Some advantages of using this scale are demonstrated, and relationships with sociodemographic variables are investigated. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.

他山之石，可以攻玉——西方城市史研究的历史与现状

城市的诞生也就意味着城市史的诞生，城市史研究涵盖的领域非常广泛，不仅研究城市的起源、嬗变，研究城市本身的历史与文化，研究城市与人、自然之间的关系，研究城市设施、居民生活与礼俗的变迁，而且还要研究那些有关城市的理论。文章从社会进程、理论渊源、学科发展等几个方面来论述城市史学产生的内在逻辑；从有关城市史期刊、城市史研究组织、城市史研究主题、城市史理论与方法等几个方面来论述城市史学的蓬勃发展。具有显著跨学科性质的城市史学综合了各门学科的优势，吸收不同的观念与方法，以独特的视角研究城市的历史、现状并审视未来。处于急剧转型时期的当代中国，城市化的速度越来越快，伴随这一进程也出现了一系列问题，因此这一研究不仅有着重要的学术价值，而且有着人类关怀的现实意义。     

“大西柏坡”的科学内涵和定位及发展目标探析

“大西柏坡”建设是适应新的发展提出来的,对推动全市经济社会发展具有重要的现实意义。要全面准确把握“大西柏坡”的科学内涵和定位及发展目标,从实际出发,制定科学合理的规划,建立高效的办事机构和新的管理模式,广开融资渠道,实现旅游业及相关产业的聚集发展,借助打造西柏坡品牌提高全市知名度和影响力,增强全市可持续发展能力。     

中国生态农业的发展与展望

农业是国民经济的基础,在通过科学技术进步和土地集约化利用取得巨大成绩的同时,也造成了生态与环境问题的日益加剧。在这一形势下,人类社会开始反思农业发展的政策、模式和技术,认识到农业的发展,不仅要提高产量以满足人们对农产品的数量需求,还要提高产品质量,保障食物安全,发挥农业生态系统的多种功能。20世纪后期,中国生态学家和农学家共同提出了具有中国特色的生态农业概念。经过近30年的实践和发展,中国生态农业建立了较为完善的理论体系,总结了一系列适应中国国情的成功模式,开展了不同层面的生态农业建设试点,取得了显著的成效,并得到国际社会的广泛承认与赞扬。但也存在一些问题,如对农业的多种生态服务功能没有给予充分的重视,缺乏市场化引导、规模化经营、专业化生产和品牌化推广等。面对着新时期社会经济发展的特点与资源环境瓶颈,中国生态农业需要在产业循环、多功能化、高品质、产业化以及融合传统知识精华与现代科学技术、实现农村可持续发展等方面多做努力。     

乡村振兴战略下农村职业教育服务农村经济发展的新路径

在乡村振兴的战略下,农村职业教育作为与农村经济产业发展联系最为紧密的一种教育类型,可以激发农村群众内生动力、有效阻断农村贫困代际传递,形成造血式脱贫,是实现农村经济发展、脱贫攻坚的重要途径。文章阐述了乡村振兴战略下,农村职业教育的新内核与新价值,即育人性与发展性、生产性与技能性、潜能性与永续性,剖析了农村职业教育与农村经济发展现状的正反向因素,探索了新时代农村职业教育服务农村经济发展的关键转向,并从制度保障、组织保障和文化保障等三个方面提出了农村职业教育服务农村经济发展的新路径。