Creative industries and urban regeneration

Abstract

Over the past decade, creative industries in the UK have enjoyed much high-profile coverage and attention from policy makers and academics, most notably from the inception of the Creative Industries Task Force in 1997 and the publication of the 'Creative industries mapping document' in 1998. Today, much of the political rhetoric declares the creative industries to be key to the future success of the British economy, and an instrumental tool in urban regeneration. Against this backdrop, this paper assesses critically the assumption that creativity and regeneration are intrinsically linked, and interrogates those political and policy related assertions that creative industries are a panacea for both economic and social regeneration. A central element of this interrogation is an argument against indiscriminate, populist creative industries policy, the universal application of which can serve to detract from the undoubted social and economic benefits that creative enterprises, creative communities and community level creative projects can bring.