The Dynamics of Cultural Production in Ireland: Economic Strategy, Digital Technology and Public Policy Making

Abstract

The last ten years has seen Ireland, now dubbed the ‘Celtic tiger’ of Europe, achieve an economic about-turn. A key element of this growth has been new technology. Irish policy makers have focused increasingly on a growth strategy led by the information and communications technologies (ICTs) as a means to leapfrog historic and geographic limitations of the earlier industrial revolution and ‘jump-start’ Irish economic growth. Taking advantage of rapid social structural changes, relatively high public investment/endorsement of education and advanced skills, and a ‘natural’ reservoir of creativity, that strategy has sought to market Ireland as an ‘information gateway’, an English-speaking beachhead between the USA and Europe, with an emphasis on information distribution and cultural content products. This paper outlines policy-making focused on the role of cultural production/industries as an ‘integral component of the increasingly global network of inter-connected leisure and entertainment industries’ in the capital (re)generation of Ireland. Part i looks at the various steps taken by policy-makers to both recognise and then target and develop arts and cultural activity as an economic sector. Part ii goes behind the hyperbole asks two questions: do the cultural industries exist as an identifiable cluster, and can national economic/capital (re)generation be built around cultural production?

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