A creative industries perspective on creativity and culture

The chapter considers changing definitions of creativity in relation to UK cultural policy and practice in the creative industries. Three perspectives are introduced, beginning with the notion of creativity as a product of individual creativity and talent, popularised by the UK government’s 1998 Creative Industries Mapping Document. This perspective is contrasted with an older model of creativity as a collective expression of shared values, as emphasised in earlier cultural industries policies of the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, the chapter considers contemporary views of creativity in the creative industries as participatory, user-generated, remixed and ‘democratized’. The chapter concludes that there is value in all three perspectives—the challenge for policy makers, managers and practitioners in the creative industries is connecting together individual self-expression with collective cultural values