Abstract
This paper critically examines the fundamental premise of the creative industries discourse: human creativity as a distinctive input in the production process is the core source of economic value generation. It points out that this discourse emerged within the political economic context of our time where creativity and knowledge are celebrated while human labour itself as a factor of production and social force is increasingly de-legitimised and marginalised. The paper argues that the radical potential in the discourse (the labour-value nexus) has failed to be recognised and asks how it can be rediscovered and linked to contemporary socio-economic debates. Turning its attention to the creativity residing in the cultural sector, the paper also argues that we should better understand its economic characteristics (productivity-low) and social consequences (diversity-high), and their implications for cultural policy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1078-1088 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Media Culture & Society |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 13 Nov 2016 |
Keywords
- creative industries
- creativity
- creative labour
- cost disease
- labour irreplaceablity
- cultural diversity
- productivity
- cultural policy
- creative economy
- human capital
- human creativity
- labour-value