Towards a Critique of Creative Industries Policy and Theory
David Hesmondhalgh
The Open University (University of Leeds, from April 2007)
Abstract
In response to an invitation from the seminar organisers, I begin by explaining why I
think Adorno and Horkheimer’s concept of (the) Culture Industry is not the answer to
the questions posed by the long-term growth of the cultural industries, and by the more
recent rise of the idea of the ‘creative industries’. A second section aims to elucidate the
differences between the concepts of cultural industries and creative industries, and to explain
why a priority for anyone concerned with a critical theory of contemporary culture
should be to critique notions such as ‘creative industries’ and ‘creativity’, both in policy
and in theory. In the third section, I explain that I see creative industries policy as an
attempt to find more and more opportunities for profit-making in the cultural arena,
involving intensified commodification, and I outline my view that commodification is
one important basis for critique, but only if the concept is handled carefully. I also refer
here to the importance of intellectual property and of Information Society discourse in
understanding the commodification of culture. Any critique of the commodification
associated with the creative industries idea needs to be conjoined with a critique of the
expanding realm of creative labour, and I outline some possibilities for, and problems
associated with, such a critique in the fourth section. A final section summarises the
argument and makes some comments about the problems associated with the Kantian
notion of autonomy as a basis for the defence of art against commodification.
David Hesmondhalgh is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Media Studies at the Open
University, and from April 2007, Professor of Media and Music Industries at the
University of Leeds. His publications include The Cultural Industries (2nd edition, 2007), and
four edited volumes: Media Production (2006), Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity (with
Jessica Evans, 2005), Popular Music Studies (with Keith Negus, 2002) and Western Music and
its Others (with Georgina Born, 2000). He is currently undertaking an AHRC-funded
study of Creative Work in the Cultural Industries.