THE
CREATIVE
SOCIAL ECONOMY
OUR mission.
To talk, write, read, and speak about the creative economies, sustainable development, and social investment all in one sentence.
WHY, YOU ASK?
The creative economies are a great source and a great use of impact capital to support sustainable development and equitable societies.
ABOUT
OUR
WORK
As part of a doctoral research project at King's College London, we are collating evidence, examples, and entry points to highlight, discuss, and write about the huge - and shockingly untapped - joint potential of the cultural, development, and investment sectors.
BUT HOW EXACTLY DO THESE SECTORS CONNECT?
Cultural institutions increasingly align the investment of their endowments - in addition to their exhibitions and productions - to their values and the impact they are looking to create in their communities and beyond.
Artists & creative professionals are a key stakeholder in the global development conversation. Not only because they can amplify voices, but because they know how to co-create and drive innovative solutions.
Decent jobs & inclusive growth
in emerging markets are a key challenge - and huge opportunity. With an estimated 300 million people by 2023 the artisan economy can be a major driver and force for good.
Increased finance through recycled finance is one approach to make to funding for arts and culture go further. Since capital that is repaid to investors can be recycled to support more organisations, helping to reach a greater total number.
The social investment market continues to grow in investment volume and number of actors. To fulfil deal pipeline demands, investors increasingly look at sectors that have been historically overlooked, such as they creative economies.
Increased sectoral expertise is one outcome of the expanding depth and breadth of social investment activities. An understanding of the massive economic scale and impact potential of the creative sector is growing, albeit slowly.
SOME OF WHAT WE HAVEWRITTEN
Financing Creative Industries in Kenya: Challenges, Opportunities and the Case of HEVA
by Wakiuru Njunga, Roberta Comunian, Brian J. Hracs and Denderah Rickmers
in "Developing Creative Economies in Africa
Spaces and Working Practices" | Routledge | 2022
by Roberta Comunian, Denderah Rickmers, Andrea Nanetti
Social Enterprise Journal | Special Issue: Social Enterprises, Social Innovation and the Creative Economy | Volume 16 Issue 2 | 2020
SOME OF WHAT WE PONDER WRITE NOW
With SDG 4, SDG, 8, SDG 11, and SDG 12 the SDGs are the first international development framework that explicitly refers to culture. Apart from those four, how do the creative economies relate to the other 13 SDGs?
What is the role of policy and institutional frameworks in supporting and hindering the development of a socially driven creative sector?
The creative industries lie outside the realm of common social enterprise domains. What old and new business models are adopted by creative social enterprises? (How) Does that influence their ability to attract social finance and capital?
SOME OF
WHAT WE READ
RESEARCH TEAM
Denderah Rickmers is a PhD candidate at King’s College London and the Manager, Europe at AVPN, working with Europe-based social investors to support their activities in Asia, from growing their platform and network in the region to seeing their social investment activities and programs to fruition.
She is an expert on the intersection of the creative economies and the sustainable development agenda, advocating for the role of social investment in culture.
Prior to her current roles, she has worked in the financial services sector and in trend reserach and innovation consulting before moving to creative commercial projects. Denderah holds a B.A. in Finance from HSBA and a dual degree M.Sc. in Management and Design Innovation from The University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art.
Dr. Roberta Comunian is Reader in Creative Economy at the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London. She is interested in: relationship between public and private investments in the arts, art and cultural regeneration projects, cultural and creative industries, creativity and competitiveness.
She has been Marie Curie Fellow at University of Newcastle (Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies) investigating the relationship between creative industries, cultural policy and public supported art institutions.
She has also undertaken research on knowledge transfer and creative industries within an AHRC Impact Fellowship award at the University of Leeds. She has previously researched the role of higher education in the creative economy and has recently explored in various papers the career opportunities and patterns of creative graduates in UK.
CONTACT
WE'd love to have a chat!
Denderah Rickmers
SNEAK
PEEK
SO HOW DO YOU TALK ABOUT the creative economieS, sustainable development, and social investment in one sentence?
We didn't want to leave you hanging, so here are a few examples:
The creative economies are a key driver in the creation of decent jobs and social investments can help to ensure an inclusive and sustainable growth of the sector.
The SDGs are the first development framework to integrate a cultural dimension, yet the investment and creative communities still fall short of expressing their [joint] impact.
Culture and the creative economies play a crucial role in the localisation of the SDGs – investment is needed to enable them to drive the necessary partnerships, policies, projects and practices.
The SDG funding gap in Asia-Pacific alone is estimated to be USD1.5 billion annually, the creative economies are one sector that can attract much needed private sector capital.