Cultural and creative industries (Coursera)

Cultural and creative industries (Coursera)

Main objective of this course is to trace the development of the Cultural and Creative Industries as an idea and as concept and to identify the key points of changes within it in relations with contemporary digital connected world. Another important task of this course is to provide the deep understanding of the difference between cultural and symbolic meaning products (such as films, recorded music, book and periodicals, online media content etc) and other kind of goods.

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This course will help you to:

  • Identify main peculiarities of cultural and symbolic goods in their difference with other branches of economy in terms of production chain, risks, relationship between different stages of production.
  • Be able to analyze cultural products and symbolic goods from the organizational, economic, business model point of view.
  • Be able to invent new business models and analyze cultural products in terms of their productions risk.
  • Be able to analyze cultural policies and creative industries/clusters policies.

Main prerequisite to this course is to be able to produce analytical texts in humanities. Normally the course addresses all students of master level interested in peculiarities of media and cultural economy and management. This course is strongly not recommended for those who:

  • Analyse any market or industry only in microeconomic terms (supply and demand, level of competitions etc). This course is not about market but about peculiarities of symbolic goods;
  • Try to interpret culture only in terms of marketing and management (i.e. culture is considered like a simple good to be sold to the consumer). This course considers it more broadly like a human agency to produce meanings of everyday life. That’s why cultural goods are different and can not be interpreted exclusively in terms of consuming and need more or less state support;
  • Try to interpret culture like pure “art” and consequently are absolutely not preoccupied by organizational aspect of its working.

This course uses a large number of concepts coming from different fields of science: political economy of communications, cultural studies, sociology etc. Some aspects of the course are commented by known scholars in this field such as David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds), Phillipe Bouquillion (University Paris 13 Nord), Bernard Miege (Grenoble Alpes University).

Syllabus

Week 1
Theory of cultural industries
This module gives an overview of main theories of cultural industries. We'll also talk about theories of creative industries and notion of creativity in general. You will get “research optics” to analyze cultural goods.

Week 2
Main principles of classic cultural industries
We'll talk about peculiarities of cultural goods, models of their commercialization and risks of their production. You will also learn relationships between different actors of cultural production.

Week 3
History of reproducibility in media
During this week we'll consider historical context of industrialization of culture. In particular, industrialization of print media, audiovisual media and immaterial media will be studied.

Week 4
Evolution of cultural industries in digital age
During this week we'll learn transformations of cultural industries after digital revolution. We'll touch upon changes in business models, platforms and general logics shaping cultural industries in digital era.

Week 5
Concentration in the field of cultural industries
This week concerns concentration in cultural industries. We'll talk about the meaning of concentration processes for cultural industries. Also we'll trace the main changes in large media and cultural conglomerates.

Week 6
Creative industries and cultural industries
Theoretical concepts of creative industries will be covered during this week. We'll also operationalize such terms as creative class, creative economy and creative work. Some worrds will be said about different approaches to creative policy.

Week 7
Education as creative industry
Theories of creative industries will be applied for analysis of education. Using the concept of creativity we'll explore new forms of education in universities.

Week 8
Policies in the field of creative and cultural industries
During this week we'll talk about different approaches to policies in cultural and creative industries. You will learn main principles of regulation in such industries.

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