Creative industries as policy and discourse outside the United Kingdom

Abstract

Media, cultural and communication studies' critique of the concept of creative industries as policy discourse has been as consistent as it has been negative. The gap between the remarkable enthusiasm with which it has been taken up in policy circles across many parts of the world and at many levels (national, state, regional, supranational), and the depth of opposition to it academically, marks it out as a major contemporary instance of the gap between policy and critique (Cunningham, 1992). Interestingly, though, almost all of this critique has been focused on the British policy environment, and as such betrays a remarkably metropolitanist bias. This brief overview of policy situations elsewhere in the world offers an interesting case study in internationalizing media studies, comparing their 'problematics' with those identified by Garnham as foundational to the creative industries discourse.