David Throsby: The economics of cultural policy
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L. Petrova (&) Erasmus School of History
, Culture and Communication,
Erasmus University
, Burg. Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
With his new book, The Economics of Cultural Policy (2010), David Throsby promises to provide a comprehensive synopsis of all economic contributions to the analysis of cultural policy while extending the discussion beyond the usual questions, inviting non-economists and specialists alike to join the conversation. The book suggests that theoretical and applied economics can broaden the existing study and practice of cultural policy by addressing such questions as: How do we understand and study cultural policy within a rapidly changing environment? What economic arguments can we draw on to support government decision making in matters of art and culture? With respect to rapid changes in the economy such as high-tech innovations and market globalization, we often speak of ''new'', ''knowledge-based'' and ''creative'' economies, arguing that creativity is a precursor of innovation that promotes economic benefits. In such a changing economic climate, policymakers, scholars and business leaders have increasingly seen the potential of the ''new economy'' along with that of arts and culture, in enhancing creativity. Thus, art and culture have become important sources of change in the economy. Shifts in the contemporary economy have subsequently given rise to new questions that invite us to revisit existing discussions within cultural policy research and practice. In this volume, Throsby investigates the important shifts, suggesting that conducting cultural policy today requires a better understanding of the complex interrelation between the economy and culture. The fact that cultural policy has broadened its scope from creative arts to creative/cultural industries, reflecting ''new'' areas, such as a cultural industry, the creative class, and cultural cities, invites us to rethink the arguments: now we need to embed an economic justification in the decision-making process to support one or another cultural policy strategy.
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Such processes have tended to push cultural policy towards becoming an arm of
economic policy (p. 5), where cultural significance alone is not an argument for
government intervention. In response, Throsby discusses what solutions economic
theory and application can bring to cultural policy analysis.
While maintaining that the economic approach will strengthen the reasoning
within existing cultural policy studies, he argues that it does not by any means
imply a capitulation to an exclusively economic conceptualization of art and
culture (p. 7). Throsby navigates between neoclassical economics and the
perspective of political economy, an economics that is flexible, open-minded,
and receptive to the intellectual influence of other disciplines in the social sciences
and humanities (p. 234), using a balanced approach to bring understanding of how
economic theory can be beneficial to cultural policy design and analysis. The author
explicitly highlights the importance of both the cultural and economic value of
cultural goods and servicesa discussion previously developed in his Economics of
Culture (2001)and by doing so takes an interdisciplinary view, using insights
from other social sciences.
The first three chapters of the book are theoretical and conceptual in character,
addressing core questions and definitions. The main themes, concepts and
definitions developed in the first three chapters run throughout the remainder of
the book as Throsbys analysis delves further into economic argumentation and
illustrates the implications that economic concepts have for policymaking within
different areas of culture: the arts, cultural industries, cultural heritage, urban and
regional development, tourism, international economy, cultural diversity, arts
education, economic development, intellectual property and cultural statistics. In
each chapter dedicated to a specific cultural area, he first defines its scope, then
emphasises the main shift in the evolution of the areas cultural policy. He also
addresses the areas main policy issues and the contributions of an economic
approach within a comprehensive analysis.
Throsby advances the understanding of the relevance of economics in the study
of cultural policy, introducing fundamental economic ideaspublic and private
goods, market failure, externalities, market and non-markets values, and so on. In
his analysis of the creative arts (visual, literary, performing)which have
traditionally operated largely within the third sphere and are heavily supported by
the governmenthe notes that new issues have evolved along with recent shifts in
cultural policy. For example, the motivation for public funding now involves
embracing economic logic as well as bringing to mind the concept of cultural and
economic values applied to the analysis of allocation of direct (subsidy, grants,
awards) and indirect (tax exemptions) funds. While e (...truncated)