ISA Conference, Goteborg 12-07-10

New forms of regulation for the cognitive-cultural economyTwo Experiences from Southern Europe

Marianna d’Ovidio Università Milano-BiccocaMarc Pradel Universitat de Barcelona

Summary

An institutional perspective on the cognitive-cultural economy

New institutional seettings

Barcelona: Hangar - Self-managed support for artists

Milano: Isola della Moda - Fostering alternative approaches to the fashion industry

Conclusions: approaches for creativity after the crisis

Some insights of the Cognitive-cultural economy

Different meanings of creativity and innovation

as an individual asset

as a socially constructed phenomenon

Creativity and innovation are social issues not only linked to economic performance

They exist also in the form of social innovation and socially creative strategies to face social exclusion

Freedom and precarity in the new economy

Are there tensions between innovative professions and their institutionalisation?

Flexible organisation of work in cognitive-cultural economy is presented as positive...

...but means also precarious working conditions and barriers to access certain professions, especially in certain national contexts

The paradigm on the “creative city” does not lead directly to better quality of life and social cohesion

Hangar - Barcelona

Centre for production and research on visual arts in Barcelona

created in 1997 by the Visual Artists Association of Catalonia

Self-management by artistic community but public-funded

Hangar - Barcelona

Objectives

Public Service vocation: to improve citizens’ access to art creation

To promote professionalisation of artists and their engagement in the local and global arts market

Promoting the social role of arts in the neighbourhood and the city in general.

Hangar - Barcelona

Services in Hangar

Medialab

15 individual studios

2 filming sets

Equipment rental service

Technicians and consultancy services on edition

International exchange programs

Hangar - Barcelona

Results:

Helping young artists to hire affordable spaces for creation

Creation of spaces to share and interact fostering horizontal relations

Fostering new forms of production and new forms of intellectual property: opensource software and hardware for artistic creation

Promoting internationalisation of local artists and the visit of foreigners to the centre

Isola della Moda - Milan

Isola della Moda-laboratorio di autoproduzzione is a centre for fashion design and production in the neighbourhood of Isola, in the very centre of Milan

Promotes a new approach to fashion design autonomous from the mainstream fahsion industries in Milan: “the critical fashion”

Isola della Moda - Milan

‘Consuming critical fashion’ means taking attention not only to style and trends but also and above all to the ethical issues of those who are wearing the clothes. Respect to the environment [...], the assessment of handcraft, creativity and self-production, the rediscovery of the traidtional ellaboration methods, the human relations that exist between the creator and the user are the essential values of a new and different point of view to fashion: a critical view far from the circuit of large firms, the serial production and consummerism.

[Isola della Moda website www.isoladellamoda.net visited on 2 july 2010.]

Isola della Moda - Milan

Results

Redefinition of the terms and conditions of production and distribution of fashion design

Horizontal networking fostering an alternative local production system

Giving opportunities of professionalisation to young designers in a city with powerful actors in the fashion design industries

Conclusions

Institutional innovation can contribute to redefine the local productive systems and to provide inclusion

Promotion of forms of regulation that are neither based on market logics nor on top-down government approaches

Link with old systems of production based on craft production

Small projects oriented to local production do not depend on huge financial investments, although they need public and/or private support