Creativity, cultural studies, and services industries

Abstract

While both the growth of services industries and the nature of creativity as a productive input are widely recognized, they are poorly understood. This paper considers the relationship between services industry growth and creativity inputs as part of a "cultural turn" in contemporary capitalist economies, with particular reference to the recent work of Scott Lash and John Urry, Jeremy Rifkin, and Richard Florida. It proposes ways of rethinking the relationship between services and creativity, particularly in understanding the role played by "creativity brokering" in the creative industries, and draws attention to growing tensions surrounding the concept of intellectual property.