The idea of 'creative communities' in the Richard Florida sense has acquired
   a restrictive, but possibly related, meaning, in the last ten years. In 1998
   Chris Smith, the then Minister of Culture in the UK, adopted the phrase
   'creative industries', following a suggestion from his advisors, to describe
   a set of industries in which copyright and IP play a large role: this was
   first  quantified  in  the  DCMS  mapping  document  to  be  found  at
   [1]http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_1998/Cre
   ative_Industries_Mapping_Document_1998.htm
   More recently it has been the subject of a UK government strategy paper
   DCMS. Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy (DCMS strategy
   document). London: DCMS, 2008.
   [2]http://www.culture.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/096CB847-5E32-4435-9C52-C4D293CDEC
   FD/0/CEPFeb2008.pdf. and the usage has Austrialian,  European, Canadian and
   increasingly US endorsement.
   Like 'globalisation', the word 'creative' in association with 'economy',
   'industries', 'cities' or 'spaces'; has become a buzzword. Sadly I think the
   new  usage may be suppressing earlier, and more sophisticated meanings
   associated with 'creativity' and its related concept of 'culture'. In fact
   basically,    the    two    ideas    are    becoming    merged.    See
   [3]http://www.kulturpolitik-kulturwirtschaft.de/, one of the main German
   websites dealing with 'cultural economy', whose URL uses 'Kultur' while its
   title uses 'Kreativ'. Or see
   [4]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/20071120/cult/fesel_slides_en.pdf.
   from Bernd Fesel and Michael Soenderman, both of the German Office for
   Cultural Policies and Cultural Industries. They write:

   "Over the last few decades, the culture and creative industries have become
   a  major  economic force. The creative industries, a complex of eleven
   economic sectors, aroused a lot of attention in 2006 due to its surprisingly
   high  turnover and growth figures. The culture and creative industries
   subsequently gained a new importance on the political agenda ??? in the Lisbon
   process for the strengthening of economic growth in Europe as well as in the
   UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity, which was ratified by Germany in
   February 2007.

   "At the beginning of the German EU Presidency in 2007, the German Federal
   Government placed the issue of culture and creative industries on the agenda
   of the informal meeting of the European Ministers of Culture in Berlin. ...
   In November 2006, the report ???Economy of Culture in Europe???, commissioned by
   the EU Commission, was presented. According to this report, the gross value
   added of the creative industries in Europe amounted to 2.6% of the GDP in
   2003. This corresponds to a turnover of about EUR 654 billion in 2003. From
   2002 to 2004, employment grew by 1.85%, while total employment across the EU
   decreased. Therefore the creative industries are one of the driving forces
   of  the European economy, with a potential to contribute significantly
   towards reaching the goal of the Lisbon Agenda to make Europe ???the most
   competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world capable of
   sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social
   cohesion.???
   This basically fuses the two concepts as does pretty well everybody else
   working in this field including, I'm sad to say, me. However I think the
   time has now come to make a proper distinction.  A good historical account
   of  the  evolution of the terminology is given in Justin O'Connor. The
   cultural and Creative Industries: a review of the literature. Leeds: School
   of Performance and Cultural Industries, The University of Leeds, 2007.
   [5]http://www.creative-partnerships.com/CP_LitRev4.pdf.

   Alan Freeman