What Is the Role of Formal and Informal Education? Unesco World Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries September 25 th 2009 Severino Salvemini Director CLEACC, Economics and Management of Arts, Culture and Communication Bocconi University, Milano, Italy

Cultural and creative industries had remarkable transformations since the early 1980s l Cultural industries moved closer to the center of the economic action l Creative companies are no longer seen as secondary to the “real” economy l Cultural products increasingly circulate across national borders l Cultural policy and regulation have undergone significant shifts l Cultural tastes and habits of audiences have become more complex

But also “traditional” industries benefitted by cultural development l Benefitial effects of arts and culture should not be seen only as linked to the development of cultural markets, but also as drivers which produce spillovers in the general economy l Products and services are more and more often bought for their evocative and symbolic values (from durable, “useful” goods to identitarian performance)

Cultural industries manage and circulate creativity Cultural industries are agents of economic, social and aesthetical change Substitution of industrial capitalism with cultural capitalism

Creativity is a fundamental resource for the post-modern society, which needs growing intellectual capital in order to cope with the challenge of the knowledge society The question is: “Can we produce creativity?” And, if yes: l How can a society mantain a high level of creativity in the long run? l How can it be shared among communities? l How can it be transmitted to the future generations?

The creative Human Capital comes from: l Tacit knowledge on the field (learning by doing; contamination in the creative cluster; role of a creative master or menthor) l Formal education in academies, technical schools, “factories”, universities, where stones for professional careers are built l Attraction policies of foreign talents (role of creative cities or cultural districts; role of mobility of talents) l Investments in technologies which help productivity, knowledge transfer, dematerialization, soft transformations

But warning: not only education for humanistic and artistic competences! l The new patterns of production, distribution, consumption require specific management skills l Arts and culture cannot be sold like the production and marketing of other goods or services (they are merit goods) l Executive leaders and managers must, in addition to organizational and economic competences, know the arts and the artistic languages and environments (and…and… instead of either…or…)

And finally the last brick in the wall : the urban studies l The creative process is largely conditioned by the cultural atmosphere where it develops l The more open, interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, tolerant is the environment (educational and/or professional) the highest will be the concentration of creative talents l And the highest the concentration of talents, the most creative will be the local economy