Creative industries and regional development strategies

The concept of creative industries is now well established in both academic and policy discourse. Historically, it had its roots in the policies of Tony Blair's "New Labour" governments of the United Kingdom during the late 1990s and 2000s. Its creative industries policies were 1n turn influenced by culture-led urban renewal strategies 1n ma1or UK cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow, as well as by economically­ oriented cultural policy strategies such as the Australian government's 1994 Creative Nation program. In the 2000s, there was a significant process of international diffusion of creative industries policies. Tafel-Viia et al. (2013) identified such policies being developed in 11 leading European cities Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw There have also been important regional and national policies developed 1n European nations including the UK, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Russia, and creative industries have been at the forefront of the European Union's Creative Europe strategies as part of the Horizon 2020 program