'The 2005 Convention and the Cultural Economy: Ten Years On’ is an an independent expert's seminar of invited scholars, consultants and independent UNESCO advisors. It is hosted by the Global Research Priority in International Development at the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, on Friday 11th September.

The 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions aimed at setting a political and regulatory framework for the equitable global development of the production, distribution and consumption of cultural goods and services. Emerging from a long debate around culture and development, cultural diversity and the unfolding of a new round of globalisation, the 2005 convention attempted to update cultural policy in an era of global trade and the intersection of culture and economy. Ten years on, the landscape of the cultural economy has changed. The Internet, digital communications and new mobile devices have seen many of the old dominant players eclipsed by GAFA (Google Apple, Facebook, Amazon). China's rise has been more rapid than expected, though perhaps less extensive in the field of culture. The Global Financial Crisis rocked the confidence of the neo-liberal economic fix, but the failure of large-scale opposition since has left a sense of interregnum. The creative industries and the creative class burnt a fast policy swathe across the emerging economies of Asia, Africa and post-socialist Europe.

 
In this seminar we look at how far the 2005 convention still allows us to articulate a progressive policy for global cultural economy. What are its strengths? What does it lack? What are the prospects for its role in focusing policy debates around cultural economy? The format will be open discussion around thematic questions.

This expert seminar will culminate in a published statement for UNESCO on the future need of the 2005 Convention.
 
This is a seminar sponsored by the Warwick Global Research Priority in International Development, under its year-long thematic ‘Cultural Economies and Cultural Activism’ [facilitated by Jonathan Vickery]. It will be held in the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, and is part of an ongoing dialogue between members of the Global Cultural Economy Network – which began as a partnership between Monash, Warwick and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
 
This seminar is convened by Professor Justin O’Connor (Communications and Cultural Economy at Monash University, Melbourne), who in September will be Visiting Fellow of the Warwick Institute of Advanced Study (facilitated by Dr Eleonora Belfiore].

It is intended that this seminar will generate an independent statement.