Cultural Industries of Tomorrow: Towards Postgrowth Prosperity and Sustainability

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The cultural industries are usually understood as ‘those institutions (mainly profit-making, but also state … and non-profit organisations) that are most directly involved in the production of social meaning’ (Hesmondhalgh 2007). As such, they comprise not only culture in the narrower sense – such as the fine and visual arts – but also areas such as broadcasting, architecture, film, music, fashion, lifestyle, and content-related aspects of the internet. This elective offers a cutting-edge exploration of the current transformation of cultural industries by exploring the ways in which academic research, policymaking, and actual practice have sought to change the sector.

In the last four decades, scholars and policymakers alike have paid great attention to the cultural industries. Considered as harbingers of post-industrial economic growth, the cultural industries have been constructed in public discourse as tools to foster urban regeneration, social inclusion, and cultural diversity. Increasingly, however, this highly positive vision is being questioned. Many studies point to issues of precarity and exclusion in cultural work. Meanwhile, creative urbanism is associated with problems of gentrification and social inequality. This critique of the cultural industries and their social impact coincides with a more general societal and scholarly debate on the desirability of economic growth as a social and political goal. In light of the negative impact of economic growth on planetary ecosystems and its questionable correlation with collective prosperity, researchers increasingly call for a postgrowth transformation, which prioritizes collective wellbeing and ecological regeneration over economic growth.

Cutting across these two debates, this elective explores what cultural industries of tomorrow might look like. To that end, we will not just analyze problems but also look at emerging solutions. How do different cultural industries seek to reinvent themselves to solve issues of work precarity, social exclusion, and economic inequality? How do creative workers seek to respond to pressing problems of global heating and biodiversity loss? Which new forms of social cooperation and ecological cohabitation do the cultural industries innovate and experiment with?

To address these and related questions, the elective explores case studies that include – yet are not limited to – cultural cooperatives, creative urban living labs, decolonial tourism, museum activism, the sustainable lifestyle industries (e.g. minimalism and zero waste), crafts and craftivism, and the Fashion Revolution movement. Students will be given the chance to focus on case studies that are relevant to their interests and future professional plans. By applying their new insights on cultural industries research and practice to specific sectors and institutions, students will have the opportunity to prepare themselves for their internships in period 4, as well as for their future careers in the cultural industries and in cultural policy.