The Creative Sector and the Knowledge Economy in Europe: The United Kingdom’s Creative Economy Programme

Abstract

This work investigates the economic role of the creative sector within the knowledge-economy in Europe and the corresponding role of the state in formulating relevant policies to boost its competitiveness and secure growth and jobs. Current figures on turnover, value added, growth and employment show that the creative sector can play an important economic role. Yet this is much about prospects and it depends on the adaptation to the “big three” –digitization, convergence and globalization – fostered by the state itself. Precision of the present census for the creative sector is found to be the main concern to date. Further and better evidence is required to inform policy-making and economic assessments. The link between evidence collection and policy-making is analyzed by carrying out a case study on the UK’s Creative Economy Programme. This produced frameworks for evidence collection and analysis in policy perspective. It also created a general framework for policy recommendations and a set of suggestions to which the UK government has committed in 2008. The study relates to Yusuf’s view of innovation, and Pratt’s spatialized production of culture. Three main elements emerge from the case study, i.e. the focus on the interrelations between creative industries, an inter-ministerial policy-making, and the appreciation of the network dimension of the knowledge economy.