ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades the cultural industries have increasingly moved to the center of political debates about the transformation of contemporary capitalism. They are frequently celebrated as a “multi-million pound growing force” (Department of Culture, Media and Sport, 2001: 1) and assigned a pivotal role in economic regeneration. Here, for example, is Chris Smith, the Minister responsible for overseeing cultural enterprise in the United Kingdom’s first New Labour government (1997-2001):
During the past few years in Britain we have seen an incredible flowering of the creative industries: [. . .] that rely on [. . .] creative talent for their added value. [. . .] They earn more revenue at home and abroad than the whole of manufacturing industry. And the sheer scale of these figures tells us something about the great sea-change that has occurred in the British economy over the last twenty years.
