International conference on cultural economics in Copenhagen

By Associate Professor, PhD Trine Bille, Copenhagen Business School, Institute for Innovation and Organizational Economics

June 9-12 2010 the16th International Conference on Cultural Economics by the ACEI will be held in Copenhagen at CBS. Some of the various topics that the conference will touch upon are:

• art markets and cultural consumption

• creative clusters and urban development

• cultural entrepreneurship and business

• cultural heritage and cultural tourism

• cultural policy and arts institutions

• culture, globalization and language

• economic of copyright and the cultural industries

• economics of marketing and promoting culture

• entertainment and media industries

• internet economics and culture

The conference is a research conference for economists with an interest in the cultural sector, but also for consultants, administrators and politicians with an interest in culture and cultural economics are encouraged to participate. We are expecting up to 300 participants from all over the world, however especially from the Western part of the world and Asia of course. Apart from presentations of a number of new research papers and results within the topics mentioned above (around 200 papers will be presented at the conference) there will be four panel discussions where some of the leading cultural economists of the world will participate. The four panels will be about the following topics:

· Creative Industries. The panel is led by Professor Michael Hutter, WZB, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung

· Intellectual Property Rights. The panel is led by Professor Ruth Towse, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

· Cultural Tourism.The panel is led by Professor Roberto Cellini, Catania University, Italy

· Museum economy. The panel is led by Professor Christian Hjorth-Andersen, Copenhagen University, Institute of Economics

Finally, there will be key notes speeches by two of the leading economists of the world:

· Professor Bruno S. Frey, University of Zürich, will talk about world heritage and UNESCO.

· Professor Victor Ginsburgh, ECARES in Belgium, will talk about competition on awards within art, wine, and knowledge.

The conference is arranged is collaboration with ACEI, Association of Cultural Economics International, http://www.culturaleconomics.org/. An international association of cultural economists which has existed 1973. The first conference was held in Edinburgh in 1979 and since then these conferences have been held every second year in Europe and USA in turn. In 2008 the conference was held in Boston and those interested in cultural economy can look forward to a trip to Japan because in 2012 the conference will for the first time be held outside Europe and USA since it will take place in Kyoto. This reflects a development where Asia and here within not least Japan have a great and growing research and interest for cultural economics.

Cultural economics has existed as an field of research for many years, but has in Denmark in recent years received a significant attention and interest. This is among other things connected with the increasing interest in creative industries and experience economy which has for example resulted in the foundation of The Centre for Culture – and Experience Economy www.cko.dk, but also in many other cultural economic strategies and initiatives on a national, regional, and local level. These strategies are in many cases to a higher degree driven by political rather than research related evidence (Bille, 2009). Even though cultural economics and experience economy often are confounded within public debate they are two rather different concepts. Cultural economics is about research applying economic theory on the art- and culture sector (see e.g. Towse, 2010, which is a good introduction to the field). Just like micro economics is about applying economic theory to the field of environment. Experience economy on the contrary is about making money on experiences. Thus there is a significant difference between the two concepts. Where cultural economics has a scientific point of departure in economical theory and often has a welfare economic starting point, the experience economy takes its point of departure in business emphasising that companies are to make money. A concept that later on – especially in Scandinavia – has been assumed by politicians wanting to promote the economical growth in their geographical area (Bille, 2009). The research in cultural economics has however a great deal to contribute to this.

At the conference in Copenhagen the world’s leading cultural economists will be gathered and there will be opportunity to listen to and discuss the newest research in the field.

Literature

Trine Bille (2009): Oplevelsesøkonomiens betydning i økonomien og kulturpolitikken, Nordisk Kulturpolitisk Tidsskrift nr.1, 2009, side 93 - 112 (The impact of the experience economy on economy and the cultural policy)

Ruth Towse (2010): A textbook of Cultural Economics, Cambridge University Press