Creative Clustering in Small Island States: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival Industry

Abstract

Introductionthe Caribbean cultural industry sector is one of most promising in region, providing both culmral and financial value added within global marketplace. Like its counterparts in global south where export of creative goods grew at 12.1 percent per annum between 2002 and 2011,1 Caribbean culmral industry sector is one of fastest growing sectors in regional economy and is increasing steadily at a time when growth in other areas has slowed. For instance, it is estimated that top ten Jamaican reggae artists are worth US$90 million, a sum that was greater than earnings of bauxite minus aluminium exports (US$85 million) and sugar (US$72 million) in 2009.2 Data on Barbados's creative sector estimate that it earns Bd$97 million (US$48.5 million) annually, with festivals and music contributing approximately 78.2 percent of that sum.3 Meanwhile, Trinidad Carnival generates aboutTT$i billion (US$i 56 million) per annum and accounts for majority of earnings in that country's cultural sector.4 These performance trends suggest that cultural industries can be used as a development platform, leading many regional governments to explore new strategies to improve sector. In this regard, concept of culmral clusters has generated interest as one such strategy.This article will examine efficacy of creative clusters for Caribbean states by looking at their impact on small urban and rural centres. The existing evidence suggests that clusters in smaller settings simultaneously address spatial, environmental, economic and social issues. According to Miguel Rivas, many local governments have successfully launched local 'meta-projects' within cluster framework to catalyse ailing communities. 5 Another potential value for small island development states lies in fact that clustering calls for a more targeted, holistic and manageable approach to development of creative sector by concentrating efforts on a specific town or region that can in turn catalyse growth and innovation in other sectors. In this way, a local ecosystem strategy6 can be employed to promote more efficient use of scarce resources, foster innovation and encourage much needed convergence in policy arena.In this regard, article, focusing on case of Trinidad's carnival industry, will pose four main questions:1. What is history and evolution of existing cultural clusters?2. How have these clusters influenced development of cultural sector?3. Have policies? aimed at cultural sector facilitated or hindered cluster development?4. What lessons and recommendations can be drawn from existing clusters to assist in development of a sustainable cultural industry sector strategy?This smdy uses a mixed research method inclusive of interviews, case studies, focus groups with key informants, and content analysis of government and media reports. The case studies featured are a masquerade cluster in suburb of Woodbrook, near capital Port of Spain, and a steelpan cluster in St Augustine/Tunapuna area along East-West corridor.Three key concepts are used to underpin analysis: clustering, creative collaboration and cultural citizenship. The definition of clusters employed throughout smdy is drawn from World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which describes clusters as the geographic concentration of a creative industry (craft, film, music, publishing, interactive software, design, etc.) that pools together its resources in order to optimise creation, production, dissemination and exploitation of creative works.8 The evidence on creative clusters suggests that they have a positive impact on entire cultural ecology. According to Philip Cooke and Luciana Lazzeretti, agglomeration encourages co-creation and co-opetition among creatives, diversifies indus- trial structure, assists in development of rural and urban services and amenities, strengthens community and family life, and fosters local identity for mat ion. …