The Avignon Forum was opened last November 18th with the attendance of more than 250 persons from over 15 different countries.
The aim was to bring together three different areas that usually turn their backs on each other: economy, culture and media.
Some European Ministers of Culture and well-known influential representatives both from cultural and media backgrounds were among the guests.
One of the topics on the table was the importance of culture as a dynamic and growing sector.
According to the 2008 UN report on Creative Economy, today’s culture sector only represents 3,4% of world trade. Recent forecasts indicate that as much as a third of the sector growing will be produced by cell phones and the Internet. According to what Gilles Lipovetsky said: “We are now shifting from culture maketisation to goods culturisation”.
Most of the speeches outlined how hard it is to understand changes in a world where the Internet’s revolution generates a new way of thinking and a brand new economy, which is still being built.
The major topics of free culture and the problems it raises in creativity, as well as the gap between what is virtual and what is real are core debate questions. However they were missed during the Forum. When the economic dimension of culture is debated thoroughly, these elements must be taken into account as they are considered a part of the appreciated “cultural exception”.
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