Introduction

The main question explored in this chapter relates to how the economic and entrepreneurial orientation of creative industries resonates with artistic and cultural goals, and with other strategic municipal and regional development goals. It also focuses on the ‘pressure’ that the strategisation of cultural policy poses to the use of arts and culture in community development.

As the chapter deals with the role of creative industries in cultural planning in Finland, the primary data drawn upon consists of 16 municipal cultural strategies and five regional cultural strategies. They are analysed using a theoretically oriented content analysis, where the theoretical concepts and perspectives used are derived from previous international studies on cultural planning, community development, creative industries and the economisation of culture (for example Evans, 2001; Throsby, 2002; Lewis and Surender, 2004; Bilton, 2007). Previous research suggests that cultural industries and enterprises are typically justified in cultural policy based on the idea that they bring social improvements and community development (Verwijnen and Lehtovuori, 1996; Evans, 2001). The assumed impact is not regarded as being one-sided, as enterprises are also expected to benefit from community resources. However, the potential contradictions between individual for-profit business goals and community development's equity goals are rarely pointed out in cultural strategies.

The public funding of culture and appreciation of the ‘intrinsic value’ of arts and culture have a long tradition in Finnish cultural policy. One issue explored in this chapter is how entrepreneurial initiatives with community development goals change the nature of arts, culture and cultural policy. It considers how they become instrumentalised for purposes other than directly cultural ones, such as local brand and competitiveness, profit-making and social welfare.

Finnish cultural policy tradition

Finnish cultural policy belongs to the tradition of what is often referred to as the ‘Nordic cultural policy model’. Although there is national heterogeneity within the Nordic tradition, it includes many systemic similarities, such as relatively decentralised administration of cultural policy through its arts council system. Nordic countries also share many core principles and values in their cultural policies: autonomy of the arts, social welfare, equality and inclusion, for instance. The Nordic model encapsulates inclusive public support for arts and culture, and promotes services that make access to arts and culture available to as many citizens as possible. Community development is an important element of this model.