Widening the web. Applying a production network approach to the cultural and creative sectors

This paper argues that to understand the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) we need a wholesale re-conceptualisation of its economic organisation to render visible its production system. We counter the model of the sole artist engaged in craft production, or the corporate industrialised mass production of commercial products, with a more nuanced model of cultural production (eco-)systems which does not depart from location, but instead from organisation. Drawing on research for the CICERONE Horizon 2020 project, we show that by adapting a Global Production Network (GPN) framework to analyse the particularities of the CCS, we can develop a conceptual lens which goes beyond the creation phase and systematically maps other related activities and their respective locations; looks at the forms of embeddedness of these activities and at the governance of the production networks. This challenges extant approaches to understanding the CCS which are siloed either by industry, phase of production or by location. The structure of the paper is as follows: we present a brief overview of key developments in the CCS. This is followed by a critique of existing cluster and ecosystem approaches. Next, we outline the conceptualisation of the cultural economy version of the GPN. Finally, we provide a synoptic overview of the key findings of the CICERONE project organised around production network cycle, mode of governance and embedding to explain the spatiality of the creative economy in a new way. • A new understanding of the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) based on a wholesale re-conceptualisation. • Starting point is organisation not location. • Adapting a Global Production Network approach to the CCS provides a novel lens to render the complexities of CCS visible. • An overview of the key findings of the CICERONE project organised around production network cycle, mode of governance.