OTTX21

What is the creative economy?

The term ‘creative industries’ began to be used about twenty years ago to describe a range of activities, some of which are amongst the oldest in history and some of which only came into existence with the advent of digital technology. Many of these activities had strong cultural roots and the term ‘cultural industries’ was already in use to describe theater, dance, music, film, the visual arts and the heritage sector, although this term was itself controversial as many artists felt it demeaning to think of what they did as being, in any way, an ‘industry’.

One thing all these activities had in common was that they depended on the creative talent of individuals and on the generation of intellectual property. In addition, to think of them as a ‘sector’, however arbitrary the definition, drew attention to the fact that they were part of or contributed to a wide range of industries and professions, from advertising to tourism, and there was evidence that the skills and work styles of the creative sector were beginning to impact on other areas of the economy, especially in the use of digital technologies.

The main feature of creative economy is people’s use of creative imagination for increasing the value of an idea. John Howkins came up with the concept of creative economy in 2001 to describe economic systems in which value depends on originality and creativity and not on traditional resources like land, labor and capital. In contrast to creative industries that are limited by specific sectors, the term “creative economy” describes the creativity of the economy as a whole

Creative economy is a fast-growing sector of the world economy. It is dynamic in generating income, creating employment and developing export, as it is less tied to material resources. The economist and art theorist Pierre Luigi Sacco also underscores that creative economy best reflects the local characteristics and preserves identity in the globalization era.

According to the latest forecasts, there will be a rapid growth of the industry in the near future. After all, the market volume of the creative economy is already about $104.2 billion (researchers include influence marketing, which in 2021 is estimated at $13,8 billion).