CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, CREATIVE CITY AND CREATIVE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT: PERSPECTIVES

ON THE CITY OF TSHWANE, SOUTH AFRICA

Dr Charles E.M. Ruyembe & Prof. Mzo Sirayi

Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa

INTRODUCTION

One of the most significant current discussions in the new global economy is how the

creative industries can become a central issue into the planning for city development

as a strategy to develop the creative economy.

So far, in most African countries this lack of understanding the capacity and strengths

of the creative industries discourse to create diverse value for individuals, cities, municipalities, towns and villages has emerged as a major challenge.

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Firstly, though some countries like South Africa theorise about creative industries, there are no adequate plans to move creative industries to the centre of social, physical and economic development.

Secondly, there is no cultural policy or cultural plan which is used to transform the city centre into a focus for civic identity and social inclusion or to encourage local residents to rediscover the city centre and use creative industries to generate local economy.

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This paper argues that no attention has been paid to urban renewal or city planning with a creative industries and cultural planning approach in Africa, in particular South Africa.

This paper is divided into five parts. The first part focuses on matters of definition. The second part discusses the interaction of the three key domains, while the third part outlines strengths, benefits and capabilities of the arts, cultural and creative industries. The fourth part analyses reasons for the integration and assesses what procedures should be followed in the entire process in the city of Tshwane. The fifth part is the conclusion.

WHAT ARE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES?

The term “creative industries” is a new discourse in most developing countries and it has different meanings amongst different countries. As a result, the creative industries definition is debatable and

contested.

However, Ruyembe (2015) contends that in the African context, the creative industries should be defined as a set of economic activities deriving from arts and cultural activities including services, products

that embody artistic expressions, and may have implications for trade and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

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DCMS (2001) defines the concept as activities “which have origin in the individual creativity, skills and talent and which have some potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and

exploitation of intellectual property” (DCMS, 2001).

In reference to the DCMS definition, creative industries generally incorporate advertising, architecture, arts, craft, design and fashion; film, music, and performing arts; publishing, software, toys

and games; TV and radio, and video games (DCMS, 1998).

WHAT IS CREATIVE CITY?

Florida (2002) defines the term creative city as a place with the highest actual presence of - or potential to attract – the creative class (Florida, 2002).

WHAT IS CREATIVE ECONOMY?

According to UN (2008), the creative economy is an involving concept that reflects a set of knowledge-based economic activities, and at the heart of creative economy are the creative industries

(United Nations 2008, 15).

The creative economy incorporates creative assets that basically generate economic growth and development. Furthermore, it promotes social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development,

and most importantly, interact with technology, Intellectual Property (IP) and tourism objectives (United Nations 2008, 15-16).

HOW IS THE INTERACTION OF THE THREE KEY DOMAINS?

The creative city establishment initiatives took shape in the late 1980s as a global movement reflecting a new planning paradigm for cities (Landry, 2000).

It is this new planning initiative that gives priority to the creative

industries approach as an important component that stimulates social, economic, tourism, physical and technological development.

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Lewis (1990:131) refers to this process as a form of economic regeneration. He goes on to suggest that the objectives are threefold: to raise the profile of the city and attract tourists; to use

cultural facilities to make the city an attractive place for businesses to move to; and create employment by investing in and developing local cultural industries.

Some scholars such as Bianchini (1993) and Stevenson (2004) refer

to this process as arts-led social, economic and physical regeneration.

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The interaction of these three domains – the creative industries, creative city and creative economy – has brought about some transformation in creativity and innovation, creative occupations, changes in the economic landscape into cities, municipalities, towns and villages.

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The creative industries and cultural planning (new planning for cities) supports essential pillars of development and sustainability that include economic prosperity, social equity, environmental responsibility and cultural vitality (Ontario Ministry of Tourism 2014, 1).

WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS, BENEFITS AND CAPABILITIES OF THE KEY DOMAINS?

Questions have been raised about strengths, benefits and capabilities of the arts and cultural concerns, and how that could be merged into the new planning for city development and create value in the end.

In responding to the questions, our personal account based on the interaction of the key domains refers firstly to; the richness of the arts, cultural and heritage forms in South Africa.

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Secondly, the image of most young people drifting from rural to urban areas in search of jobs,

Thirdly, a need for changing structures, and changing the lifestyle of young people through finding new ways of passing on cultural heritage to them, “to enable them to create their own artistic language and to contribute to their global development (emotional and cognitive)” (Bamford et al. 2009, 2

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The issues of exploiting the richness of arts, cultural artefacts and finding ways of “reconverting the cultural capital” (Canclini 1992, 31) as the pride and identity of the country are of vital importance.

The strengths, benefits and capabilities of arts and cultural concerns into the planning of the city are aspects that increase the existence of Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs).

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In addition Lewis (1990, 133) argues that the economic benefits of this are not just felt by the cultural and tourists industries, but by subsidiary industries such as catering and retailing, (since tourists will want places to eat and places to shop)

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One major theoretical issue that has dominated the planning paradigm for cities is how to integrate the creative industries into the new planning circles.

The integration of creative industries into planning for city development emerge as a sustainable way of promoting culture first (United Nations, 2013) through, for example:

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1. Arts and traditional cultural festivals are significant events in the lives of many African communities, and stands as a tool for transmission of culture, artists’ mobility, entertainment, and networking, which inform and expose creative artists to their stakeholders.

2. Museums, libraries, galleries and archives are prominent and effective ways to educate, promote and preserve Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs).

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3. Exhibitions and trade fairs that are likely to benefit creative artists through networking, marketing their products, activities and services.

4. Theatre halls and cultural spaces/sites are creative hubs for live

performances and exhibitions for creative artists and tourism purposes, respectively.

5. Documentation and resource centres preserve vital information, promote TCEs and serve education purposes.

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6. Competitions and awards in the creative industries motivate and retrieve (reconvert) traditional knowledge and skills in line with creativity and innovation.

7. Print and electronic media/social media facilities educate, preserve and promote creative works.

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8. Tourism, gift shops, clothing, costumes and food: all these play a very significant role in economic development and job creation, sustain indigenous knowledge and skills, and support local food processing and preservation.

9. Research, education and training: these inform, educate, enhance and preserve TCEs.

(Ruyembe, 2015)

WHY SHOULD CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, CREATIVE ECONOMY AND CREATIVE CITY BE INTEGRATED?

In the perspective of the city of Tshwane, with the growing competition between cities, youth unemployment challenges and young people drifting into cities in search for jobs, has led to a search for new and unique ways to city planning.

In that context, the integration emerges as a way to increase the vibrancy of the city of Tshwane through “city branding” or “city theming” strategies (Richards 2013), which incorporates creativity and innovation.

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In fact, the integration of creative industries and creative economy into the planning paradigm for city development gives new interpretations of the creative city. These include but are not restricted to:

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1. Giving room to arts and cultural concerns to interact with technology, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), thus, making creative artists benefit from their works and the city meeting cultural tourism and marketing of the arts objectives.

2. The creation and promotion of non-existent creative jobs.

3. Making the production of culture and creative products contribute to the economic development and boosting local productions …” (Barrowclough and Kozul-wright 2008, 6).

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4. Giving room to creativity and innovation to flourish, and create a knowledge based society, whereby new social relations exists. Indeed, that situation facilitates skilled labour and the learning of

new things, reinforcement of old ideas and finding ways of solving challenges encountered by creative artists in their creative occupations; and thus, enhance decision making (Hearn and Rooney

2008, 1).

WHAT PROCEDURE SHOULD BE FOLLOWED IN THE INTEGRATION PROCESS?

Cultural policy and cultural planning have become increasing significant components of economic and physical regeneration strategies in many Western Europe Cities (Bianchini & Parkinson 1993).

In that context, the integration process of cultural planning and urban regeneration in the City of Tshwane has to follow the following steps:

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1. Start by accessing the relevant public policies (for example, cultural policy) and confirm goals and priorities

2. Identification of where we are

3. Determine where we want to be

4. Determine how we get there

5. Determine how culture becomes part of the city’s everyday business.

(Ontario Ministry of Tourism, 2014)

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has given an account of and reasons for the integration of creative industries, and creative economy structures in favour of the new planning paradigm for creative city development.

Thus, the new planning paradigm for creative city development as analysed in this article could help the city of Tshwane in South Africa to include arts and culture in the city’s sustainable development initiatives in line with achievable and measurable international guidelines, dimensions and standards (UCLG 2015).