Creative industries in contemporary Serbia: a cultural analysis

Ova disertacija posvećena je analizi kreativnih industrija u savremenoj Srbiji iz ugla studija kulture. Osnovna ideja vezana je za teorijsko razmatranje kreativnih idustrija kao sastavnog dela savremenih globalnih razumevanja kulture, u kojima se kulturom smatra celokupan način života. Tako koncipirana i oslobođena estetskih i etičkih stega, kultura gubi prethodni elitistički, selektivni i normativni karakter i postaje široko polje stvaranja značenja koje se formira putem praksi simboličke potrošnje. Materijalna i simbolička potrošnja dobara, usluga, prostora, slika i predstava nakon druge polovine 20. veka postaje način putem kojeg ljudi definišu sebe, te kreativan čin koji je direktno vezan za učestvovanje i simboličko ponašanje u savremenom društvu. Kada je potrošnja prepoznata kao kulturna ili simbolička praksa, kreativnost je postala koncept kroz koji razumemo te procese. U takvom ambijentu, kreativne industrije čine vezu između kulture shvaćene u najširem smislu i svakodnevnog života ispunjenog kompleksnim činovima potrošnje i diskurzivnim praksama društvenog pozicioniranja; spojnicu koja omogućava komercijalizaciju stvaralačkih ideja, i na taj način njihovu integraciju u savremeno društvo. Kreativne industrije nastale su ne samo iz širenja pojma kulture, već i usled razvoja, kritike i razrade koncepta kulturnih industrija, koje su inicijalno uveli Teodor Adorno i Maks Horkhajmer. Njihova vizija industrijski zasnovane umetničke i simboličke proizvodnje bila je posve pesimistična i onemogućavala je situiranje sve snažnijih i razvijenijih stvaralačkih aktivnosti, utemeljenih u novim medijima, tehnikama proizvodnje, popularnoj kulturi i rastućoj publici, u svet koji je postajao sve globalniji i povezaniji. Gubitkom pejorativnog karaktera, ali i širenjem opsega svog stvaralaštva, kulturne industrije, uz odgovarajući set ekonomskih, kulturnih i urbanističkih politika (mahom anglosaksonskih zemalja), postaju kreativne industrije. Tako promenjene, kreativne industrije omogućile su sasvim nova razumevanja kapitalistički zasnovanog umetničkog i simboličkog stvaralaštva, ali i njihovo globalno širenje. Cilj ovog rada nije bio da samo na teorijskoj ravni objasni kako je došlo do nastanka i razvoja kreativnih industrija u globalnom svetu, već da ih posmatra u kontekstu savremene Srbije, koji karakteriše proces postsocijalističke transformacije. Reč je o procesu koji ocrtava socijalne, kulturne, ekonomske i druge promene nastale globalnim prestankom postojanja socijalističkih režima i potonjim težnjama postsocijalističkih društava da se transformišu u liberalne demokratije kapitalističkih ekonomskih uređenja. Na ovaj način, omogućeno je posmatranje fenomena kreativnih industrija u kontekstualnom prostoru koji ne podseća na onaj u kojem su ove industrije inicijalno nastale, a to je kontekst Velike Britanije i Australije tokom poslednjih decenija 20. veka. Takav pogled nam omogućava višestruke prednosti. Na prvom mestu, da proširimo razumevanje fenomena kreativnih industrija iskustvima društava „sa margine” i uvidimo na koji način ovaj globalni koncept poprima lokalna značenja i značaj u odnosu na političke, kulturne i socijalne karakteristike dominantne u Srbiji početkom 21. veka. Na drugom mestu, omogućava nam da uvidimo koliko i na koji način teme vezane za kulturu u širem, a za kreativne industrije u užem smislu zauzimaju važnu poziciju u socijalnim, političkim, kulturnim i ekonomskim procesima u savremenoj Srbiji, odnosno koliko su važan činilac njene postsocijalističke transformacije.This dissertation provides an analysis of creative industries in contemporary Serbia from the perspective of cultural studies. The basic idea is related to the theoretical consideration of creative industries as an integral part of modern global understandings of culture, in which culture is seen as “a way of life”. Understood in this way and liberated from aesthetic and ethical restraints, culture loses its previous elitist, selective and normative character and becomes a broad field where meaning is formed through various practices of symbolic consumption. After the second half of the 20th century, material and symbolic consumption of goods, services, space, images and representations became a way for people to define themselves, as well as a creative act that is directly related to the participation and symbolic behaviour in a contemporary society. When consumption was recognized as a cultural or symbolic practice, creativity became the concept through which we understand those processes. In such an environment, creative industries form a link between culture understood in the broadest sense and everyday life filled with complex acts of consumption and discursive practices of social positioning; a link that enables the commercialization of creative ideas, and thus their integration into a contemporary society. Creative industries arose not only from the expansion of the concept of culture, but also from the development, criticism and elaboration of the concept of cultural industries, which were initially introduced by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Their vision of industrially based artistic and symbolic mass cultural production was completely pessimistic and made it impossible to situate ever stronger and more developed creative activities, based in new media, production techniques, popular culture and a growing audience, in a world that was becoming more and more global and connected. By losing their pejorative character, but also by expanding the scope of their creativity, the cultural industries, aided by a suitable set of economic, cultural and urban policies (mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries), became creative industries. Thus changed, creative industries enabled completely new understandings of capitalist-based artistic and symbolic creativity, as well as their global expansion. The principal aim of this work was not only to explain on a theoretical level how creative industries were introduced to the globalised world, but to observe them in the context of contemporary Serbia, which is characterized by the process of postsocialist transformation. It is a process that outlines social, cultural, economic and other changes resulting from the global fall of socialist regimes and the subsequent aspirations of postsocialist societies to transform themselves into liberal democracies with capitalist economies. In this way, it is possible to observe the phenomenon of creative industries in a contextual space that does not resemble the one in which these industries initially arose, which is the context of Great Britain and Australia during the last decades of the 20th century. Such a view allows us multiple advantages. In the first place, it allows us to expand the understanding of the phenomenon of creative industries with the experiences of societies "from the margins" and see how this global concept takes on local meanings and relevance in relation to the political, cultural and social characteristics dominant in Serbia at the beginning of the 21st century. In the second place, it allows us to see how much and in what way topics related to culture in a broader sense, and creative industries in a strict sense, occupy an important position in social, political, cultural and economic processes in contemporary Serbia, that is, how important a factor they are in its postsocialist transformation