Cultural Workers and Creative Industries Development in Southeastern Europe

1
Cultural Workers and Creative Industries
Development in Southeastern Europe

• Jaka Primorac
• Institute for International Relations (IMO)
• Zagreb, Croatia
• ASO Methodology Workshop
• University of Zadar
• 9-12 November 2006

2
Background of Research

• Project The Position of Cultural Workers in
  Creative Industries The Southeastern European
  Perspective
• Cultural Policy Research Award 2005, by European
  Cultural Foundation and the Bank of Sweden
  Tercentenary Foundation
• Semi-structured in-depth interviews in four
  countries Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia

3
Context of Research

• Creative industries as the incentive for city
  development from DCMS definition in 1997,
  towards regeneration of cities and regions
• SEE region as the area of turbulent events
  several levels of change have to be taken into
  account democratization, globalization, the war
  and its consequences in some of the countries of
  the region, and the impact of EU integration

4
Definitions

• Creative industries encompass several fields of
  production of symbolic goods book industry, film
  industry, multimedia and electronic publishing,
  design and advertising, architecture, visual
  arts, photography and music industry
• Cultural workers as agents involved in the field
  of creative industries on levels of production,
  distribution, interpretation and management

5
Understanding creative industries

• Cultural workers usually have never heard of the
  concept of creative industries
• If they were acquainted with it, it is because
  they work in the audio-visual industry, or were
  acquainted with the work of British Council UKSEE
  Forum creative industries strand
• They are more inclined to think about the changes
  in the field in the sector-specific policies

6
General attitudes towards creative industries
development in SEE

• Three basic orientations
• Invisible hand of the market approach
• Third way approach
• Globalist approach

7
Invisible hand of the market approach

• Advocating radical change of the system that has
  characteristics of state-centered system it
  does not correspond to current situation
• One could say that it is a system that came to
  the end of its volume, It ends now, when it is
  just before its termination I think that this
  would be the most clever thing to do to come to
  the end of this system (Film producer, Zagreb,
  Croatia).

8
Third way approach

• Changes should be made but that some good
  features of the system should stay
• That is a very big amount of money (or maybe I'm
  wrong) that is given to cultural products in
  Croatia, but very little is given in return. So,
  for example, model of credits to SMEs in culture
  is not necessary when for example this money is
  already being given. (Director of multimedia
  publishing company, Zagreb, Croatia).

9
Globalist approach

• Orientation towards a global market - companies
  which are oriented towards the usage and
  development of the new technologies, and whose
  products have a wider market reach (that do not
  depend on the translation, and similar issues)
• 'We became recognized by a marketing campaign for
  Google, for example, or advertising we worked
  with TV, radio, flyer, freight companies. Our
  name is out there. But our projects are not based
  only to Romania, we also work in Switzerland, in
  Japan, Algeria, Belgium, United States. (General
  Manager of a media agency, Bucharest, Romania)

10
City and CI development

• City as the focal point of the CI development
• Depending of the type of work cultural workers
  decide on the urban surroundings
• Only capital cities have the adequate
  infrastructure for the CI development
• Public policies should be amended in other cities
  so as to include instruments for the CI
  development on the functioning of the legal
  system, and the development of business
  infrastructure

11
CIs field - the need for the overall strategy for
the development of the cultural field

• Changes of the existing structures and
  institutions, inclusion of strict criteria -
  transparent evaluation and funding
• Regulation of the legislature, especially
  regarding the IPR
• Balance between the state help and the market
  arms length bodies should be established
  decentralization
• Better communication (establishment) of
  professional associations
• Education of cultural managers and cultural
  producers
• Improvement of professional education
• Education on new technologies and public policies
  for their broader usage

12

• THANK YOU!