Creative industries in transition: A study of Santiago de Chile's autopoietic cultural transformation

Abstract

Much of the research on cultural and creative industries has been ‘Western-centric’, but recent interest into cultural and creative industries in the Global South confirms that this conceptual frame is not always directly transferable. This first comprehensive analysis of the last three decades of cultural and creative industries in Santiago de Chile is based on detailed participant observations and multiple in-depth interviews with cultural professionals in the city. The findings indicate that ‘Western’ economic narratives fail to capture the role of Chile's political and cultural context, and especially the socio-urban fabric of Santiago itself, in the eclectic mix of practices that has developed across various locales. The city's self-transformation can be seen to embody a process of autopoiesis, a concept first proposed by Chilean scholars. This cultural autopoiesis has been impacted by external shocks that include COVID-19. The study advances existing empirical and theoretical understandings of the development of cultural and creative industries in the Global South and beyond.