Placing the creative sector within innovation - Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice

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Placing the creative sector within innovation: The full gamut

Luke Jaaniste
Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane QLD

PP: 215 - 229

Abstract

This paper examines the place of the creative sector - the arts, design, media and communications - within the framework of contemporary innovation. The historical focus on science-and-technology by innovation policy makers has spurred many within the creative sector to argue how and why it also contributes to innovation.

Drawing on a wide range of English-speaking research and policy documents, the full gamut of places for the creative sector in innovation is surveyed. The paper ends by scoping out the conceptual and empirical research that is required if ideas about innovation in the creative sector are to take up a mature position within innovation studies and related policy.

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Keywords

innovation, policy, creative sector, arts, media, design

Article Text

What is the place of the creative arts, design, media and communications within contemporary innovation? This question was first raised in the late 1990s and voiced with increasing interest by those advocating for these domains of culture in the last five years. It is not surprising that these domains - which together I will call the creative sector - would seek a place at the table of innovation, since the degree of public support to be gained is potentially greater than that achieved through cultural and social policy channels. Beyond this, the concepts and frameworks of innovation may provide a more comprehensive way of understanding the dynamics of the creative sector in all its facets because, more and more, innovation policy touches on and reaches across many areas of public policy including culture, education, research and development, commerce, social development and heritage.

Various arguments, evidence and policy recommendations have been raised by the creative sector regarding its place in innovation. Yet much work is still to be done. Existing arguments are a fractured assortment that need firstly to be brought together and secondly, underwritten by further inquiry around the basic pivots of innovation theory and policy including concepts of knowledge and intellectual property. No wonder then that the over-arching innovation policy of national and international bodies is still rooted firmly in the assumptions, examples and evidence of scientific-and-technological innovation. Whether or not this remains the case - whether or not the creative sector will take a comprehensive place in the innovation stakes - will rest on coming policy research, development and advocacy by the creative sector.

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