Culture 3.0: A New Strategyfor Culture-led

Socio-Economic Development

Pier Luigi SaccoIULM University, Milan

Cultural and creative industries in a regional perspective - I

• The remarkable growth and success of cultural and creative industries in the last decade has brought considerable attention upon the direct economic impact of cultural production

• In order to maintain a proper and effective developmental approach, however, we need a conceptual scheme that allows us to understand (and capitalize) the indirect socio-economic effects of cultural production

• Also, we have to keep into account that the new paradigms of cultural production do not necessarily use the market as the value-generating platform (communities of practice)

Cultural and creative industries in a regional perspective - II

• At the regional level, each region will have its own proper mix of direct and indirect culture-based value generating processes, defining a specific local model (clustering pattern)

• Culture-led development does not concern urban areas only, but also rural and low-density ones

• The developmental potential of cultural and creative industries requires that they are seen not as an isolated sector, however promising, but as the backbone of a new information, knowledge and content-based economy that infiltrates all aspects of everyday life

• In this context, cultural policies may become a major lever of regional policy

From Culture 1.0 to 3.0

• 1.0: pre-industrial, small audiences, absorbs resources but does not generate turnover, author/craftsman; at the end of the value chain

• First major revolution: technologies that enhance reproducibility and demand

• 2.0: cultural industry, large audiences, generates turnover, author vs. audience, a specific sector of the economy (a specific value chain)

• Second major revolution: technologies that enhance participation and production

• 3.0: communities of practice and not only markets, generates turnover but also indirect non-market value, prosumers and user generated content, a pervasive dimension that permeates the whole economy (culturalization of the economy and culturally mediated value); at the root of the value chain

Regions with the largest CCIs size (employment clusters)

Ile de France (Paris)Inner LondonLombardia (Milan)West-Nederland (Amsterdam)MadridCatalunya (Barcelona)DenmarkLazio (Roma)Oberbayern (Muenchen)Stockolm

BudapestOuter LondonBerks, Buck and Oxon (Oxford)Atthiki (Athens)Oost-Nederland (Nijmegen)Andalucia (Sevilla)IrelandZuid-Nederland (Maastricht)Darmstadt (Frankfurt aM)Piemonte (Torino)

Regions with the best CCIs focus

Inner LondonStockolmPrahaBratislavsky kray

(Bratislava)Berks, Bucks and Oxon

(Oxford)HamburgBudapest

OsloOberbayern (Muenchen)KarlsruheMadridWest-Nederland

(Amsterdam)BerlinIle de France (Paris)Lazio (Roma)

Regions with the best growth dynamics in CCIs

Niederoesterreich (St Polten)SalzburgOberoesterreich (Linz)Asturias (Oviedo)Zapadne Slovensko (Nitra)Cumbria (Carlisle)La Rioja (Logrono)Andalucia (Sevilla)Hants/Isle of Wight

(Southampton)

Castilla-La Mancha (Toledo)Jihovychod (Brno)Pais Vasco (Bilbao)MurciaValenciaKaernten (Klagenfurt)LietuvaGalicia (A Coruna)Picardie (Amiens)Nyugat-Danantul (Gyor)

An 8-tiers approach to the indirect effects of cultural production (and participation)

• Innovation• Welfare• Sustainability• Social cohesion• New entrepreneurship• Soft power• Local identity• Knowledge economy

InnovationRanking Innovation Scoreboard 2008 (UE15)1 Sweden2 Finland3 Denmark4 Germany5 Netherlands6 France7 Austria8 UK9 Belgium10 Luxemburg(UE27 average)11 Ireland12 Spain13 Italy14 Portugal15 Greece

Ranking Active cultural participation Eurobarometer 2007 (UE15)1 Sweden2 Luxemburg3 Finland4 France5 Denmark6 Netherlands7 Belgium8 Germany9 UK10 Austria(UE27 average)11 Ireland12 Italy13 Spain14 Greece15 Portugal

Culture as a ‘pre-innovation’ platform

Active cultural participation stimulates the capability building of people in terms of attitudes toward the un-experienced:

• questioning one’s beliefs and world views, • getting acquainted with, and assigning value to, cultural

diversity,• learning to appreciate the transformational impact of new

ideas,• building new expressive and conceptual skills…

Strong link with innovation systems

Speaking of impact…

• In terms of macroeconomic impact, the indirect impact of active cultural participation in terms of innovation could be as relevant as the direct one of the cultural and creative industries’ turnover;

• Moreover, it may have effects on all sectors;• It is likely to be even more important in terms of

securing the long-term competitiveness of the economy

• We may look at regional systems of innovation from a new perspective

Welfare

• There is a strong statistical association between life expectancy and cultural participation (Konlaan et al, 2000)

• There is an equally strong association between cultural participation and psychological well-being (The Italian culture and well-being study, IULM/Bracco)

Hierarchy of factors affecting psychological well-being

1 Diseases2 Cultural participation3 Income4 Age5 Education6 Gender7 Job8 Geography

Classical music concerts

Theatre

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Which single variables have the strongest impact on SWB?

Towards a cultural welfare perspective?

• The well-being impact of cultural participation is especially strong among the severely ill and the elderly

• Systematic cultural participation in these categories might bring about substantial improvement in their quality of life

• At the same time, cultural participation might significantly reduce hospitalization frequency and duration for chronic pathologies

• If this is true, the whole program could be financed through the consequential saving on general welfare costs

Sustainability

• There is a strong relationship between performance of differentiated waste recycling systems and cultural participation (Crociata, Lilla and Sacco, 2011): the cognitive development from cultural participation spills over to motivation and ability to classify different waste items

• An indirect systemic effect similar to the innovation one in fostering awareness toward the consequences of individual behaviors for the environmental common good (Agenda 21): from innovation systems to sustainability systems?

Social cohesion

• certain types of cultural projects may produce strong and significant effects in terms of juvenile crime prevention, pro-social vocational orientation, or conflict resolution (Abreu program, projeto Axé, etc.)

• these projects are generally focused on active cultural participation, as it is made possible for instance by programs of music education

• the indirect effect of cultural participation on social cohesion is the overcoming of self- and others-stereotyping as provoked by incumbent social prejudices, often linked to ethnicity factors

• the Maisons Folie system of cultural facilities realized by the Région Nord-Pas de Calais in the context of Lille 2004 European Culture Capital

New entrepreneurship

• the cultural and creative field may be a powerful incubator of new forms of entrepreneurship

• the rapid growth of the online content industries, just to make a particularly evident example, is creating the stage for a new entrepreneurial cultural with a strong generational basis

• the development of creative entrepreneurship still lags behind substantially if compared to the attention and resources devoted to development and support of entrepreneurship in other sectors of the economy

• these new forms of entrepreneurship could improve significantly the employability of graduates from the humanities sectors, which are commonly considered to have a weaker employability potential than the graduates from quantitative and technology areas

Soft power

• cultural and creative production may contribute to a great extent to increase the visibility, reputation and authoritativeness of a country/region at all levels of international relationships, from the political to the economic

• high level of soft power may open up new markets to national/regional products through the identification and emulation dynamics which are typical of post-industrial consumption, may attract more visitors, talents and investments, may stimulate new, sophisticated strategies of value creation through branding and marketing tools

The IfG/Monocle ranking of soft power

1 UK1 France3USA4 Germany5 Switzerland6 Sweden7 Denmark8 Australia9 Finland10 Netherlands

11 Spain12 Canada13 Singapore14 Norway15 Japan16 Italy17 China18 Israel19 Korea20 South Africa20 Brazil22 Mexico23 India24 UAE25 Turkey26 Russia

Knowledge society

• the association between active cultural participation and lifelong learning is a pretty natural one, and unlike others is not particularly surprising

• one might even think of active cultural participation as a specific form of lifelong learning

• as lifelong learning is well targeted by structural funds programming and takes a central place in EU long-term strategies, it could be of interest to launch and pursue innovative programs and actions that exploit the strategic complementarities between the former and culturally and creatively based communities of practice as instances of advanced platforms of cultural and creative production

Local identity

• considerable emphasis has been put on the role of the installment of new, spectacular cultural facilities in the catering for global visibility of one specific urban or regional milieu

• but the developmental potential of a culturally-rebuilt local identity lies in the capacity to stimulate new dynamics of production of cultural content and new modes of cultural access by the local community, as a consequences of the new opportunities created by the attraction of outside resources

• example: the Newcastle/Gateshead urban renewal strategy

In a nutshell…• Culture is not simply a large and important sector of the economy,

it is a ‘social software’ that is badly needed to manage the complexity of contemporary regional societies and economies in all of its manifold implications

• The total indirect macroeconomic impact of cultural participation is likely to be much bigger than the (already remarkable) direct one

• Once we become able to measure the indirect effects of culture on the various dimensions (to ‘capitalize’ culture), it will be possible to bring cultural policy at the top ranks of the policy agenda

• These effects are further strengthened by the growth of the cultural and creative industries, but only insofar as such growth is as inclusive and participative as possible

Priorities

• Cultural participation must be as inclusive as possible• Cultural participation must be as active as possible• Cultural participation has not to do mainly with entertainment,

but with learning, capability building and skill development, and overall quality of life

• Cultural participation as an indicator of a region’s propensity to change and innovation

• Cultural participation as a new factor of smart growth• Cultural participation as a new driver for sustainable use of

resources and for more efficient welfare expenditure• Cultural participation as a ‘shock therapy’ for social mobilization

Ireland: peculiarities

• Will be the only EU country with more than 30% of citizens aged 0-24 in 2030

• Is the least urbanized country of the EU (2/3 of the population living in sparsely populated areas)

• Has the best level of high educational attainment in the EU for the age group 25-39 (almost double than for the 40-64 group)

• Best level of tertiary educational attainment for women in the EU, age group 25-39 (much worse for 40-64)

• Highest percentage level of tertiary students of art after UK, and in the top class for architecture

The creative sectors in Ireland: peculiarities

• High level of entrepreneurship and/or self-employment (almost double than in the other sectors)

• Lowest EU level of employed working at home• Very high incidence of writers and creative artists working in non-cultural

sectors• Highest EU growth rate of publishing firms, 2002-07 (newspapers and

periodicals much more relevant than books) – most of the turnover and value added comes from newspapers, highest relative incidence in EU after Cyprus, but still a very small component of the overall manufacturing sector (1.5% vs. >5% of the UK)

• One of the best levels of cinema screens per inhabitants in the EU With a very high density of multiplexes); highest annual number of cinema admissions per inhabitant

• Low level of visits to cultural sites

Shortcomings

• Very low level of foreign languages learnt by secondary students (worst in EU after UK) – in spite of very high international tertiary students mobility

• Low level of female participation in tertiary education related to culture

• Less than EU average relative employment in the cultural sectors (1.5 vs. 1.7), and low female participation

• Fair but not high (EU-based) incidence of tertiary education in the cultural professions (highly educated people find jobs in other sectors)

• Second worst balance of trade of cultural goods in the EU after Austria• Second worst level of export of cultural goods over total exports, 2009,

after Romania and highest level of import of cultural goods over total imports, 2009

Perspectives and issues

• A ‘young’ country• The well-educated young are attracted by other sectors, in

spite of the many art and architecture students• Low female participation• Potential of low-density areas• Weak competitiveness in the cultural and creative sectors

(very negative balance of trade)• In spite of the emphasis given to the knowledge economy in

the long-term development model, the cultural and creative sectors have not enough momentum and still remain marginal: capability without creativity

Some potential policy guidelines

• Culture and innovation + culture and knowledge society: fostering more pro-active cultural participation and linking it better to a ‘creative’ knowledge society

• Culture and well-being: developing a systematic cultural welfare program

• Culture and soft power + culture and local identity: developing a new, more effective strategy

• Culture and new entrepreneurship: providing incentives to attract the skilled young

A creativity-intensive model of capability through more direct and more pro-active cultural participation