Strategies for creative industries: an international review

Abstract

The paper presents the findings from an international survey of public policies and strategic plans to promote and support the development of the creative industries at city-regional level. The rationales and mechanisms employed, the shifting definitions of the cultural and creative economy and sectors adopted, are discussed in the context of the grand narrative of the ‘creative city’. Case studies of Barcelona, Berlin and London are presented, confirming spatial concentration across the creative industries, but also the continuing dependency on public intervention in what is projected as a growing economic sector worldwide. Policy emulation, but also confusion over classification and social objectives, is evident. At the same time, creative industry employment growth has begun to falter in key creative cities leading to the suggestion that the creative industries are now subsumed into a more substantial and wider knowledge economy.