Beyond creative industries: Prospects for the creative sector in South Africa

Abstract

Culture and socio-economic development are inseparable but most local, provincial and national arts and culture programmes in South Africa can be argued to be almost detached from the socio-economic programmes. The
separation relegates creative industries sector to the periphery of local, provincial and national economies, thus limiting their opportunities for economic growth. This can be attributed to a cultural policy framework which is not adequately integrated to other socio-economic development policies, strategies and programmes. One of the major consequences of an insular cultural policy framework is the sector’s limited ability to sustain itself and hence it’s heavy dependency on government subsidies and grants from international agencies. Despite multi-layered challenges in cultural policy and creative industries, stakeholders acknowledge the inherent economic growth potential which is yet to be unlocked. Significant economic growth prospects can be argued to lie beyond creative industries and these can be realised through identification of and plugging into implicit cultural policies. Using the concept of ‘implicit cultural policies’ and other related concepts this paper explores economic opportunities for creative industries ‘beyond creative industries’; the challenges of the South African cultural policy framework which could be impeding potential economic growth of the creative and cultural industries and recommendations towards realisation of opportunities missed by the creative industries. The goal of this paper is to contribute to arguments for applied arts and alternative cultural policy frameworks which could grow the creative and cultural industries in South Africa. It suggests an integrated and interdisciplinary cultural policy approach.