THEMATIC ISSUE: "CREATIVE ECONOMICS"
Emerging Topics in Production Engineering
Organized by Clarisse Stephan* (Fluminense Federal University – UFF, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
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* Guest Editor on a Thematic Issue in Brazilian Journal of Operations & Production Management.

 

 “Creative Economics” is a concept originated from the term “Creative industries” which in turn are those based in production and movement of goods and services whose key asset lies in its intangible component [1]. Therefore the “creative industries” can conform distinct economic sectors – whose selection varies according to the specific economic impact on production, job creation, internal tax collection and the export currency of this type of wealth.

In its relation to Production Engineering, conceived as being dedicated to “the conception, improvement and implementations of systems that encompass people, materials, data, equipment and energy”, in search for improvement of skills and transdisciplinary knowledge, gathered with engineering projects and analyses, “can specify, predict and evaluate the results obtained by those systems”, aiming at its major efficiency.

Engineering, lato sensu, has always concerned the development of better living conditions. By dealing with the multiple dimensions of the productive systems in different organizations, the Production Engineering develops strategy activities and productive process planning. The integration of those activities is essential to increasing the competitiveness in those organizations (companies, cooperatives, associations, and federations) and hence the country.

Thus, the interface between Productive Engineering and Creative Economy is demonstrated: the demiurge potential of intellectual property goods makes its presence for being public, by nature, and non-rival; in other words, they are formed as easy dispersion goods, with low or no marginal costs, implying that its management must be based on abundance ethics, and not on scarcity, where there is the need for developing new theories that confirm the existing practices (including commercial practices) and those yet to come.

These goods result from the new products and services aroused by this productive matrix: inventiveness. The acknowledgement of today´s and late technologies (tacit and explicit knowledge) is crucial for this process.

The premise is the recognition of the intellectual property as gifted by a value capable of moving the economy of a region. Apart from the production and offer of services related to cultural goods, there are multiple uses of technology disposed nowadays, with a wider access to forums of democratic engagement, especially in terms of what we can call micropolitics. On the other hand, the formulation of the macropolitics depends on the study of that new economy and presupposes the elaboration of questions about the numbers on which Creative Economy´s statistics and perspectives are based on, as the fact that these often do not reveal sectorial particularities. Equally, because of the absence of balance considering the concepts and methodology, the data of Creative Economy are not easily measured and compared between States.

Notwithstanding, the absence of balance between the embracing segments, some consensus unveils: Creative Economy, and the industries that shapes it, are the result of a blend between creative arts, new technologies, and the potential market brought by globalization.

Provided by creativity, culture and experiences the creative industries would also contain the so-called cultural industries.

Consequently, besides the techniques on its measurement, it is important to define what composes the Creative Economy in a certain location, considering its dynamics and specific cultural processes, as well as the value networks raised and gathered. Many resources are being used. The new technologies and its best management must allow the enhancement of its access and use.

This was the purpose of the gathering of articles that this Edition presents: showing some uses of the new (reworked) technologies that have been done by the State in synergy with various segments of the market. The recognition in terms of how these goods move the Economy is the role of the Academy that must develop research to compose and underpin theories tailored to the elaboration and application of better techniques that may foster them.     

Therefore, it needs to be done. “No hay caminos, hay que caminar”.

[1] Promoted by FIRJAN (Rio de Janeiro Industries Federation), published in Brazil, in 2016, the creative industries mapping has categorized the creative industries in four main areas: Consumption, Culture, Media, and Technology. Those areas would gather 13 subareas, where Consumption would include publicity, architecture, design and fashion; in Culture we’d have cultural expression (arts and crafts, and folklore and gastronomy), heritage and arts, music and performing arts; in Media it would be insert the editorial market (including digital content), audiovisual (content development, supply, programming, and broadcasting); Technology would be subdivided in research and development of all areas but biology, biotechnology (research carried out in biology and bioengineering) and information and computing technology. The 13 subareas or “creative segments” are basically the same already listed on the Creative Industries Mapping, published by the same Federation in 2012 and 2014. In 2010, The UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) has also presented a categorization for Creative Economy, stating that it represents an enormous potential for the so-called “viable development”.

 

Clarisse Stephan, 

Guest Editor