Creative Industries in Ukraine: Analysis and Prospects of the Development

Abstract

IntroductionGlobalization is one of the main phenomena faced by modern society, which affects all aspects of human activity at the present stage. Over the past few decades, globalization has dramatically changed the world creating many advantages for the development of national economies. The very same economy of many countries is undergoing significant structural changes as traditional industries replaced by the service sector and innovation, marking the transition to a knowledge economy where a particular role is played by creativity (Cabelkova et al., 2015; or Żelazny, 2017).Creativity is an inexhaustible resource based mainly on the ideas and cultural characteristics rather than on the physical capital. A major source of creativity is invisible as it includes both everything each person possesses - knowledge, emotions, talent, spontaneity, intuition, memories, imagination, divergent thinking, the ability to produce new and original ideas, problem solving skills - and cultural assets and civilization foundations of each society, such as cultural heritage, values, traditions. That is why creativity is distributed among the countries quite equally.The modern form of globalization determines a new plane in which cultural practices interact with creativity and innovation on a global scale shaping in such a way a new sector of the economy - creative industries. They encompass economic activities concerning the generation, exploitation, transformation, dissemination and commercialization of information and knowledge having significant economic and social impacts (e.g. drive sustainable development and create inclusive job opportunities). Therefore, the creative industries are converted into a stabilizing element of country's competitiveness.Ukraine, unlike many other countries in the world, can rely on vast reserves of natural resources (land, mineral resources, etc.) to sustain growth but at the same time, it has enormous creative potential, which is underpinned by talents and national cultural and historic heritage.Unfortunately, I have to state that there is no creative economy in Ukraine yet, but there are many creative people, i.e. creative class - small organizations and self-employed workers, which are key players in the creative industries. For instance, Snapchat has acquired the Ukrainian facial recognition start-up Looksery as an addition to the social network. Regardless the Grammarly company works for the English-speaking market it has also been established by Ukrainian talents. As a result, the company has two major offices in Kyiv and in San Francisco.These examples testify to the fact that the issue of the development of the creative industries is becoming increasingly topical for Ukraine; its creativity-building efforts can be in very high demand not only within the country but also throughout the world. However, the successful emergence of the creative industries in Ukraine should not overshadow the need for matching between global trends and national peculiarities.This research is aimed at determining the importance and efficiency of the creative industries for the Ukrainian economy. It can also be considered as an attempt to measure the contribution of the creative sector to economic and social development of Ukraine.In addition to this purpose, undertaking of the research sets the following objectives:1) to accurately analyze the concept of the creative industries highlighting the position of creative cities, creative clusters and creative class within it;2) to determine the contribution of the creative sector to Ukrainian GDP, foreign trade and employment;3) to interpret and draw the position of Ukraine on the market of creative products;4) to identify factors and preconditions, which affect the creative sector of Ukraine;5) to formulate a strategy of transformation Ukraine into a creative economy.1.MethodologyThe methodology of this study demands research practices that negotiate the intersection of creative economy, international affairs, macroanalysis, and geography. …