• Describe, compare and critically re-assess relevant sociological and socio- economic theories of creative industries;
• Apply critically and analytically these theories to empirical examples (case studies)
• Account for the organizational, managerial or labour structure/dynamics of selected creative industries
• Draw out and critically discuss relevant strategic and policy implications

The course presents an introduction to creative work and creative industries. It covers topics such as: the definition, relevance and characteristics of creative industries; approaches to analyzing the socio-economic, as well as socio-cultural organization of creative industries; approaches to managing creative people; the impact of digital technologies on the traditional creative value chains and creative work in music, publishing, or film; the rise of new media entrepreneurship such as fashion and food blogging as well as crowd-funded and crowdsourced design.

Creative industries are the fastest growing industries, employing about a third of the entire labour force in most developed countries. Creative industries refer to a group of industries with a high level of artistic input, including cinema, publishing, television, music, design, fashion, dance, theatre and art. Permeated by radical uncertainty of both demand and creative output, predicated on the efforts of creative people, such as artists and designers, who are famous for being eccentric, individualistic and deeply invested in their creative work, and consisting usually of ephemeral project work involving hundreds of people, creative industries indeed represent a distinct challenge to managers. The course will offer students tools for the analysis, evaluation and understating of the organizational challenges in creative industries (how is the messy business of making creative products managed?) as well as their work dynamics (how is it like to work in these industries?). Students will be taken through central readings and key concepts in the contemporary creative industries literature which will place them on firm scientific ground to understand, analyze and interpret the complex and ambivalent realities of the creative sector.

The course is taught by lectures and class work. In addition to standard readings on creative processes in Europe and the Unites Sates special attention will be paid to Danish and Scandinavian variations of different creative industries and their functioning vis-à-vis local/regional/global business and cultural policies. The strategic role of creativity in knowledge economies, future competitiveness, innovation, research and development will be also explored by study excursions/visits to acclaimed and award-winning Danish creative companies and engaged conversations with creative professionals.

To be announced on Learn, but most likely:

Howard Becker, Art Worlds. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982. (Excerpts)

Pierre Bourdieu, “The production of belief: contribution to an economy of symbolic goods.” In R. Collins et al. (eds.) Media, Culture & Society: A Critical Reader, 1986.

Richard Caves, Creative Industries. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2000. (Excerpts)

Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books, 2002. (Excerpts)