Cultural Workers and Creative Industries Development in Southeastern Europe Jaka Primorac Institute for International Relations (IMO) Zagreb, Croatia ASO Methodology Workshop University of Zadar 9-12 November 2006

Background of Research  Project: ‘The Position of Cultural Workers in Creative Industries: The Southeastern European Perspective’  Cultural Policy Research Award 2005, by European Cultural Foundation and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation  Semi-structured in-depth interviews in four countries: Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia

Context of Research  Creative industries as the incentive for city development – from DCMS definition in 1997, towards regeneration of cities and regions  SEE region as the area of turbulent events; several levels of change have to be taken into account: democratization, globalization, the war and its consequences in some of the countries of the region, and the impact of EU integration

Definitions  Creative industries encompass several fields of production of symbolic goods: book industry, film industry, multimedia and electronic publishing, design and advertising, architecture, visual arts, photography and music industry  Cultural workers as agents involved in the field of creative industries on levels of production, distribution, interpretation and management

Understanding creative industries  Cultural workers usually have never heard of the concept of creative industries  If they were acquainted with it, it is because they work in the audio-visual industry, or were acquainted with the work of British Council UKSEE Forum creative industries strand  They are more inclined to think about the changes in the field in the sector-specific policies

General attitudes towards creative industries development in SEE Three basic orientations:  ‘Invisible hand of the market’ approach  ‘Third way’ approach  Globalist approach

‘Invisible hand of the market’ approach  Advocating radical change of the system that has characteristics of state-centered system – it does not correspond to current situation ‘One could say that it is a system that came to the end of its’ volume, It ends now, when it is just before its’ termination – I think that this would be the most clever thing to do – to come to the end of this system’ (Film producer, Zagreb, Croatia).

‘Third way’ approach  Changes should be made but that some good features of the system should stay That is a very big amount of money (or maybe I'm wrong) that is given to cultural products in Croatia, but very little is given in return. So, for example, model of credits to SMEs in culture is not necessary when for example this money is already being given. (Director of multimedia publishing company, Zagreb, Croatia).

‘Globalist’ approach  Orientation towards a global market - companies which are oriented towards the usage and development of the new technologies, and whose products have a wider market reach (that do not depend on the translation, and similar issues) 'We became recognized by a marketing campaign for Google, for example, or advertising: we worked with TV, radio, flyer, freight companies. Our name is out there. But our projects are not based only to Romania, we also work in Switzerland, in Japan, Algeria, Belgium, United States.’ (General Manager of a media agency, Bucharest, Romania)

City and CI development  City as the focal point of the CI development  Depending of the type of work cultural workers decide on the urban surroundings  Only capital cities have the adequate infrastructure for the CI development  Public policies should be amended in other cities so as to include instruments for the CI development on the functioning of the legal system, and the development of business infrastructure

CIs field - the need for the overall strategy for the development of the cultural field:  Changes of the existing structures and institutions, inclusion of strict criteria - transparent evaluation and funding  Regulation of the legislature, especially regarding the IPR  Balance between the state help and the market; arms length bodies should be established; decentralization;  Better communication (establishment) of professional associations  Education of cultural managers and cultural producers;  Improvement of professional education  Education on new technologies and public policies for their broader usage

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