KEA - The Impact of Culture on Creativity
KEA (2009). The Impact of Culture on Creativity. (For the European Commission (DG EAC))
This study, prepared by the international policy design research centre KEA European Affairs for the European Commission, analyses the contribution of what it calls ‘culture-based creativity’ to social innovation. It discusses the impact of culture on the development of new products and services. ‘Culture-based creativity’ is seen as crucial for the processes driving technological innovation, stimulating research, and optimising human resources, branding, and communicating values. It is also seen as inspiring people to learn and build communities. According to its authors, the report calls for policies on innovation to recognise the cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary aspects of creativity. In other words, innovation policies should mix elements of ‘culture-based creativity’ with ‘economic’ and ‘technological innovation’.
The purpose of the report was to contribute to creating ‘a Europe that stimulates and encourages creativity and provides individuals, society, public institutions and enterprises with incentives to build on culture for social and economic renewal’. The study also proposed a number of concrete actions to achieve the specified objectives and outlined the Creativity Index (with a set of 32 indicators), whose aim was to assess the creative environment in EU Member States.
From a present-day perspective, the study is a useful reminder of how the development roles of culture and creativity were understood within the Lisbon Agenda priorities. Its six chapters, defining ‘culture-based creativity’, its economic, industrial and social dimensions, as well as learning and policy aspects, contain a wealth of information that can still be useful when discussing the connection between culture and creativity. On the other hand, the downside is that the view of culture in developing creativity is approached primarily in an instrumental dimension, and culture itself primarily in its arts dimension. Likewise, although it can still be claimed that ‘[a]rt and culture can make a vital contribution to the achievement of objectives that reconcile the creation of wealth with sustainability and harmonious social development’, the passage of time has shown that the measures proposed in the study have not been sufficient to result in such an outcome.
KEA “The Impact of Culture on Creativity”