This event represents the second of a series of online research seminars at DCRC in the summer of 2021, each aligned with one of our four research strands.
In this episode, under the banner of the Creative Economies Lab, we are delighted to welcome Dr Jonathan Gross, who will argue for the necessity to understand and critique how GDP derives power as an indicator of growth from a capacity to establish a simple narrative framework for collective progress, and the need to consider what might be alternative grounds for narrating the ‘success’ of economies – and of creative economies in particular.
Respondent: Simon Moreton (DCRC)
Dr Jonathan Gross is a Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King’s College London. His research addresses questions of cultural policy, participation and politics from a variety of perspectives, building on his interdisciplinary background in cultural studies and the history of political thought. His recent publications address topics including the history of UK creative industries policy, cultural democracy, and the cultural politics of hope. His current projects include ‘Developing Inclusive and Sustainable Creative Economies’, funded by the European Commission (Horizon2020), in collaboration with colleagues at King’s and at universities in Finland, Italy and Latvia.
Abstract
How do we know when creative economies are doing well? What does success look like? When the UK government defined the ‘creative industries’ in its influential and contentious 1998 Creative Industries Mapping Document, it used two measures: GVA (Gross Value Added) and jobs. In the years since, the creative industries – and now the ‘creative economy’ – have achieved policy prominence in part due to the efficacy of such pithy statistics regarding the contribution of these areas of activity to national economies. But there is now a groundswell of critique of GVA and GDP (Gross Domestic Product). These critiques have come from a variety of directions. GDP is a poor indicator of prosperity, doing a very limited job of letting us know whether, overall, people are doing well. In respect of creative economy specifically, critiques of GDP range from its disregard for the environmental destructiveness of these supposedly low-carbon activities, to the limits GDP places on ‘cultural imagination’.
Building upon these critiques, what needs to be paid attention to is the startling success of GDP. We need to historicize this indicator, to appreciate how it was born, what it was intended to do, and the unexpectedness of the hegemonic role it has come to play. In this presentation I argue that GDP’s power derives in part from its capacity to establish a simple narrative framework: coordinates against which to tell a story of collective progress. GDP is the rising tide that lifts all ships. The bellwether of prosperity. Within this worldview, the immense complexity of economies can be neatly aggregated to a single figure, and if that number increases we know that we are headed in the right direction. In challenging the dominance of GDP, therefore, it is necessary to understand the power of its capacity to set the terms for storytelling, and consider what might be alternative grounds for narrating the ‘success’ of economies – and of creative economies in particular.
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