The Role of Creative Industries in International Relations and Markets

This call for papers intends to capture texts that work at the intersection between the fields of creative industries and international relations, interconnecting them. For this issue, expanded concepts of creative industries (such as cinema and audiovisual, performing arts, visual arts, literature and design) and international relations (business, cultural, political, social, among others) will be assumed. The overriding goal is to reflect on how these two topics, normally contained within their disciplinary scope, have been related in practice and how they could theoretically be articulated in the future.

On the one hand, the creative industries have harboured manifestations of interculturality, thus leading to the fading of the “national” and “cultural spaces” frames of reference (e.g. Portuguese, German, British, etc...). On the other hand, the origin of a specific product appears as a “brand”, with all the ramifications that this category implies (namely: associated characteristics, prestige, cultural weight, value in international markets, centre/periphery relationship, etc...). Indeed, cultural products seem to be able to shape the images that people from abroad have about certain countries and societies. Furthermore, it is also increasingly relevant to discuss and investigate the internal dynamics of each country's cultural production, as well as its direction and reception (domestic or international) and the ability to focus on local realities and idiosyncrasies. Questioning these tensions and relationships is essential not only to understand international circuits and the way they value silos or platforms of transdisciplinary and interculturality but also to explain how markets and societies construct significance and meanings around cultural products and add them to a wider context – usually a nationality, or cultural space.

We seek manuscripts that address how the products of the creative industries interconnect with the wider scope of international relations and domestic, regional and global markets/circulation. Proposals can address current issues, propose future perspectives or provide accounts of past phenomena/events.

Thematic areas: creative industries; marketing; international relations; sociology of culture; cultural economics; interculturality; cultural studies.

Deadline for Submission: November 30 2022

Coordinator: André Rui Graça (andre.graca@ubi.pt)

Languages: Portuguese, English, and Spanish