After a long period of mutual ignorance, culture is now at the core of a major economic transformation. Ideas and concepts make up the information technology economy's most important resources and cultural industries sustain in large part information technology networks and media. Culture has become a sector which is strongly implicated in the evolution of capitalism. Nevertheless, its distinctiveness remains.

Cultural works are not merchandise like any other that can be abandoned to the rules of the market. The very notion of cultural industries is a contradiction in terms for activities that are torn between creative and artistic ambitions, and, as everywhere else, the emphasis on high returns. Cultural industries are distinct due to the crucial prototype creation phase that lies at the core of an industrial process in which the production and distribution phases are very similar to those of traditional sectors. Unlike other activities, the fragile structure of the mode of production of cultural products (the prototype aspect) and the nature of collective goods are justifications for not subjecting these products to the standard rules of the market.

More than any other "merchandise", culture has a symbolic dimension that largely surpasses its worth as goods and cultural products that contribute to the GNP. It is not only merchandising that dances across television, cinema and computer screens but values and world views. These industries of the "imagination" shape our behaviour and affirm or discredit the shared values that make up our identity. Thus the real difference with other products is tied more to the symbolic dimension of culture than its economic characteristics.

The economic implications are also significant. The three major issues are at the core of the debate on cultural pluralism include: the very pronounced imbalance in the flows of audiovisual products that could even further the liberalisation of electronic commerce, the concentration and vertical integration of media groups which form powerful oligopolies, and lastly, the commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights; all this within the context of the development of information technology and communication. The globalisation of exchanges and the globalisation of production within large powerful groups contribute to fears of homogenisation in favour of dominant cultures.

Can the growing economic importance of culture be recognised and analysed without yielding to the current economic principles? How can we reconcile the rules of the market based on profit with the nature of culture which is turned towards creating social links and promoting artistic creativity?

List of topics for debate :

(translated from French by Paule Hérodote 09.08.04)