1.1The cultural and creative sectors
“Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual,
and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in
addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions
and beliefs” (UNESCO 2005) Culture has multiple definitions but the 2005 UNESCO
Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions
highlights the way it embodies the human dimension of a given territory. In this sense
culture continuously shapes European cities and regions, their citizens’ identity and
flows through their production.
But culture also qualifies sectors of activity, referred to as the cultural and creative
sectors (CCS).
The cultural and creative sectors encompasses the core arts such as visual arts
(paintings, sculpture, crafts and photography), the arts and antique markets,
performing arts (opera, orchestra, theatre, dance and circus) and heritage (museums,
heritage sites, archaeological sites, libraries and archives).They also include the cultural
industries such as publishing, music, audiovisual, film and videogames and the creative
industries that refer to design, advertising and architecture (KEA 2006).
The CCS therefore are composed of non-industrial sectors producing non-
reproducible goods and services but also of industrial sectors producing cultural
products aimed at mass reproduction, mass-dissemination and exports.
According to Throsby (2001), cultural sectors’ activities involve some form of
creativity in their production; they are concerned with the generation and
communication of symbolic means; their output potentially embodies at least some
form of intellectual property.
Businesses and organisations in the CCS share common characteristics.They feature
small size and micro businesses (employing on average not more than 5 persons)
with a high proportion of self-employed or free-lancers and very few medium-sized
companies in comparison to the average SMEs. Generally, enterprises in the CCS
are also built on personal talent and driven by their founders’ passion with a strong
relationship with artistic expression that is often said to take over commercial
ambition and long-term growth (KEA 2010).
The CCS, particularly the arts (from top-class exhibitions to public arts in urban
spaces to artistic interventions in hospitals or enterprises for example), are
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