Connecting the Unconnected : Unlocking the Potential for the Development of Creative Industries in the city of Bandung, West Java Province, Indonesia

Bandung is the capital of the West Java province in Indonesia; the country's third largest city and second largest metropolitan area. I live and work in Bandung and see a great potential for the creative industries. The creative industries is already developing, but organically and can only manage to grow to a certain level. Further progress enabled by developing a better strategy needs to be put forward. The strategy also aimed to influence regional and national approach in developing the creative industries. This thesis is organized around three primary objectives which are (1) The history and current condition of the creative industries; (2) Issues in optimizing the development of the creative industries; and (3) Possible framework for development strategies. The research is informed by an analysis of empirical and conceptual studies from a whole set of subjects including the concept of creativity, creative industries, creative economies, the concept of creative cities and the relations of cultural industries to cultural policy. The research is based on a study of key players using surveys, case studies and in-depth interviews to obtain information and capture the knowledge, understanding, and experiences from the respondents regarding the creative industries in the city. The method is mainly influenced by subjective theories approach from Norbert Groeben (1990) to study and investigate everyday knowledge. The thesis concludes by revisiting the empirical findings from an analytical standpoint grounded on the reasoning and on the evidence presented. Concluding observation indicates that there are four key areas of strategies which are (1) Trust building; (2) Governance and engagement; (3) Physical evidence; and (4) The soft infrastructure. It is believed that not a single policy measure will be able to fully optimise the development of creative industries. Rather, a creative industries development strategy contains a collection of different elements