Culture and creative industries an important part of the ecosystem for innovation
Katja Lindqvist has mapped public investments in cultural and creative industries and has closely studied investments in Skåne at both local and regional level to provide the basis for conclusions and recommendations for future work with support and development. Some of her recommendations for action include educating policy makers about KKN, establishing a national strategy, and making good examples available.
- Region Skåne has been seen as pioneers in the development of KKN both in Sweden and Brussels, says Katja Lindqvist. KKN worked with a holistic perspective early on and included both business developers and cultural developers. This is easier at the regional level than at the municipal level. At the same time, specialisation in public administration in particular creates problems for horizontal cooperation. The public sector needs stability that does not exist in business and free cultural life, but that also means a lack of flexibility and speed.
It turns out that there are different paths for development work.
- What I have seen is that there are different ways to create opportunities for development work in the public sector. One way is to reach broad political agreements. It enables long-term investments and peace of mind for service personnel in the support systems. The second way is to “go under the radar”, that is, to carry out only various operations at management level without it being part of a specific venture at KKN. That way you avoid politicization and can deal with it as a specific issue. These ways are fundamentally different and have different strengths and weaknesses.
One way for the future is also to have a broad view of development and innovation so that culture, creativity and KKN are also included. A key question has been how best to support the borderland between KKN and other industries. This can promote the meeting between, for example, emerging technologies and different kinds of human needs, a meeting that can be the basis for future innovations. An added bonus in such cross-border meetings is that many professionals in the creative and cultural industries are accustomed to a freer experimentation than many other professional competencies, and can thus bring not only specialist knowledge to other industries, but also a new way of working.
How long has it been seen that there are benefits to connecting KKN and other industries to create innovations and how do you think this will develop further?
- The design year 2005 was perhaps the first clear political initiative in Sweden, says Katja Lindqvist. At that time, a series of extensive investments were made based on a thematic initiative of the then government. Researchers then pointed out, among other things, the value creation of design for companies, where it was clear to show differences between companies that had collaborated with industrial designers and those that had not. But there is a big difference between understanding that there is potential in collaboration and finding effective ways to implement it on a larger scale. And it depends on a number of factors, it is not a single challenge that is the reason why we do not see more innovation collaborations of this kind. It is important to create surfaces that are interesting for both professionals in the cultural and creative field and for developers in industry, but it is much more difficult to know exactly what combinations will lead to future innovations. Therefore, you need to invest in wide arenas. In both culture and sport, there is an awareness that extensive efforts are needed to find cutting-edge skills. The same applies to this type of development work. But it is often difficult to get a hearing from politicians for these kinds of ventures — they are perceived as unclear. And politicians avoid what might be perceived as inefficient ventures.
One way to create the encounters of the future can be through physical locations. Lindqvist writes that “municipalities also need to think actively about how culture and creativity can be given space in different areas of society, for example when planning for new parts of the city or municipality.” Some other ways of creating these meetings have been to work with the Triple Helix model (which is based on collaboration between academia, industry and the public sector) or to build different kinds of science parks.
The work on Creative Plot, Lund's incubator within KKN which was closed down in 2018, is also mentioned in the book.
What insights are important to take from The Creative Plot?
- The important thing about Creative Plot and other incubators for cultural and creative activities is that they are based on a personal intangible asset, namely creativity that can take different forms, says Katja Lindqvist. The personal connection makes it difficult to manage in our standard business development systems. Creative Plot and, for example, the Transit culture incubator work on business development in phases that are well ahead of traditional business development supports. That makes it much harder to measure the success of that type of venture in ways that you often do with these kinds of public organizations. Special expertise is needed for this type of business support from the same industry, to understand the specific drivers and development processes. It is very important to take advantage of that competence.
During Unexpec Katja Lindqvist will participate in a panel discussion on the question “How can we develop internationally connected and inclusive innovation ecosystems?”
What is that question all about for you?
- In the 1990s there were a number of independent foundations with funds from the defunct employee funds. They could develop long-term bets without having to bother with the four-year cycles of politics. They were important players both in culture and industry, and there were often great opportunities to work more innovatively, says Katja Lindqvist. Among other things, the KK Foundation worked on a program of excellence in what they called the experience industry for eight years. Few public ventures have had that persistence, with the exception of Region Skåne's KKN venture. The main challenge for public investment in innovation linked to KKN is the governance of the political system, which hampers horizontal cooperation and experimentation. It is important to consider the use of fiscal resources carefully, but sometimes the public can contribute where the market has difficulty creating long-term support structures. We need actors in the public sector who can come together on how to create a permissive infrastructure where we do not specify too much, while at the same time taking into account the stakeholders' own interest in innovation and experimentation. We need to start testing — no models are perfect from the start. It is also important to avoid prestige and politicization -- that is not a good breeding ground for innovation.
The book Development Work on Cultural and Creative Industries — Drives, Processes and Interactions is available through, for example, online stores.