Creative Destruction: Lessons for Science and Innovation Policy from the Rise of the Creative Industries

• rationale
• background papers
• audio presentations
• photos

The broad backdrop for this initiative is the convergence of cultural and economic values in the creative economy and knowledge-based society. In the research field this has precipitated new dialogue between economic and cultural disciplines. Some of the most important work in the development of both evolutionary economics and creative innovation research is being done in Europe and Australia. We are planning this event around the most advanced thinking and important problems in the creative industries field.

The most challenging thinking is coming from evolutionary economics, complexity theory and game theory. In dialogue with these fields, researchers at the CCi have been developing a new model of the creative industries, based not only on creative outputs (as in traditional industries and policy) but on creative inputs (services, consumer-generated content), and ‘social network markets,’ where values depend upon and express the choices of others. These are the source of value for consumer-created content, user-led innovation, Web 2.0 applications and self-made media.

We are modelling creative innovation as part of a larger process, the growth of knowledge, analysed at a macro or system level. Some of the most important problems in this context are clustered around participation, of both agents and enterprises, in a context where industrial-age expertise competes with population-wide access and use. From this perspective the creative industries and new digital media can be seen as a kind of ‘creative wrecking ball’ in relation to existing models of both economic growth and cultural participation.

We are also convinced that the ‘creative destruction’ of some well-established knowledge paradigms is overdue in both economic and cultural analysis; and should form an important focus for world-leading research, both empirical and fundamental, over the next five years. Some challenging ideas are already in play, for instance the Santa Fe Institute’s attempts to produce a computational science of culture.

What new paradigm can our joint perspective offer? We would like to establish firm principles and directions for future research in the field of cultural and economic values, as a stepping stone toward a new “cultural science.” The empirical focus is on the shift from closed expert process (professional production in vertically integrated firms) to an open innovation system and complex adaptive networks. The fundamental problem to be addressed is how knowledge is evolving in a dynamic and complex open system that unifies the economic and cultural spheres.

This high-level strategic workshop brings together leading researchers from the EU and Australia, to hold an intensive 2-day symposium in Brisbane, based on previously circulated position papers, to establish new research directions, policy implications, and interdisciplinary methods and problems. The output of the event will be a co-authored position paper or manifesto for new directions in “cultural science.”

The nature and extent of benefits arising from bringing EU-based and Australian researchers together in this context is as follows:

• The first benefit is the intellectual leadership of a new field of study that will assist in unifying various existing fields, bringing the human elements of contemporary economic and cultural activity closer to the scientific disciplines.
• Second; benefits accrue at the practical level. Ours are focused on legal, business, educational, technological and creative innovations, including IP law reform, education policy and practice, business analysis, and innovation in user-created content and social network markets.

These benefits cross academic, policy and public (consumer) domains:

• Academic: advancement of knowledge (disciplinary growth).
• Policy: contribution to national innovation system, including IP, technology, and user-focused policy formation.
• Public: propagation of innovation and creativity among a lay population.

The outcomes of the workshop and subsequent outputs (publication, conference) include:

• Showcasing the importance of creative industries, for instance as an enabling ‘social technology’ for mass entrepreneurship.
• Drawing out important lessons for Science and Innovation policy and research strategies.
• Exploitation of open source and IP.
• Exploitation of trans-disciplinary skills.
• Dynamics of user-led innovation.
• Modelling growth, dynamism and change in a unified cultural-economic field.