Wonderfully, busy Sunday and the exploration of hidden treasures on long-forgotten memory sticks. This is what I`ve found about why I started to research the relationship between culture and economics:
It is important to explain why this particular research area was chosen. The focus of this report is on the relationship between policy making and its effect on fashion and traditional craft on a local level. This is an area that has been little explored, therefore it was felt it was a valid research field for this project. ‘The creative economy has the potential to generate income and jobs while promoting social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development’ (UNCTAD).
Policy making affects traditional craft and fashion on every level, on every part of the world. However what happens locally is surprisingly not as researched as on an industrial level. Although it is crucially important what role it plays in people’s everyday life.
During the research journey, which shaped the field of interest in both primary and secondary form, it was identified, that to be able to fully analyse the opportunities of the project new areas needs to be explored. These research tools started a new venture, which changed the grass roots of understanding local development and empowerment in small scale fashion related projects. The new interest of the unknown territory is the relationship between fashion and economics.
The identification of the importance of this relationship between these areas has opened up new opportunities for research. By visiting public lectures at London School of Economics (especially inspired by Professor Philip Aghion’s series on Designing Policies for Growth) it became clear that the relationship between fashion and economics is a lot more important in local development and has a lot more effect on its success than it was estimated. The question, if a fashion student should venture into the field of economics was thoroughly thought through and concluded in that this relationship between policy making and its effect on fashion on a local level (artisans) is a valid research field. This was underpinned by a conversation with Professor David Throsby from the Macquarie University, Australia, whose is one of the few scholars researching the field of economics of arts and culture.
Very few academics worked on this filed, one of the inspiration came from a personal conversation form Professor David Throsby from the Macquarie University, Australia, whose research is economics of the arts and culture.
During extensive desk research both in Hungary and England it was identified that Hungary’s current position in a transition economy required more in-depth understanding from the writer. As part of the research an Innovation Management course was undertaken, run by The Hungarian Innovation Centre to become familiar with the terms and jargon. The research journey lasted six month in primary and secondary form. On the ground several interviews and a consumer behaviour questionnaire were conducted. Several local exhibitions and museums in the capital were visited to explore traditional craft.
As the result of primary and secondary research it is analysed later in the report how the history of the taxation of artisans changed during the past 50 years and how it affected the current situation of village tailoring through case studies.
Inspired by the outcome of research the whole project formed a new approach to analyse the current situation in Hungary. Instead of concentrating on setting up craft and fashion projects in Hungary to generate income for disadvantaged women, the approach was extended on looking at the opportunities within the current policy making. The result of this extended research from the makers’ point of view could be summarized in four major themes:
• Distrust
• Unused skills
• Disempowerment
• Bureaucracy burden in a transition economy.
In 2008 the first Creative Economy Report: The Challenge of Assessing the Creative Economy - Towards Informed Policy Making was published in 2008 (UNCTAD). Summary, page 6. http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=4504&lang=1
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