Making a living from creativity: careers, employment and work in the creative industries

Abstract

Research on creativity and the creative industries—those industries in which creativity constitutes the most important resource—has gained significant attention in the last decade. It is dominated by two strands. The first and more recent strand centres on the creative industries as a driver for socio-economic development. Strongly influenced by Richard Florida’s (2004) work on the creative class, those industries that “have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent” (Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), 2001, p. 5) are portrayed as delivering GDP and job growth and as facilitating urban regeneration (Clifton et al., 2009; Jayne, 2005; Oakley, 2004). Although the feasibility and desirability of such socio-economic development have proved debatable (Peck, 2005; Rainnie, 2005; Warhurst, 2010), the creative industries have become, and look set to remain, a mainstay of economic policy world-wide and thus of academic and policy-maker debates (for example, Cable, 2010; European Commission, 2012; UNCTAD, 2008).