Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow’s new book reveals the tricks behind ‘Chokepoint Capitalism’ – how big corporations use low prices to lock in users and creators, while locking out real competition.
Governments, universities and creative companies that have experienced growth in the pandemic should play a role in long-term collaborative strategies to support artists and small arts companies.
Paul Heald, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fewer books will be available to South Africans, and the books remaining under copyright will be more expensive, if the country gives in to US pressure to extend its copyright term.
New research from Wales shows the level of concern at what might happen to creative industries after Brexit.
jax10289 via Shutterstock
A project to protect producers from food fraud by verifying and promoting the provenance of the region’s beef exports to China turned out to be a source of creative work in the region as well.
Nearly 70% of dance professionals are women, but none of Australia’s major dance companies has a female art director.
David Moir/AAP
The federal government should set the country on an innovation path that takes account of where some of the strongest job growth is occurring.
At first glance, old industrial sites, like this one in Carrington Street, don’t look like much. But they provide vital spaces for creative precincts to flourish.
Paul Jones
A new project documents who uses urban industrial lands slated for redevelopment. It reveals a vibrant but largely hidden sector at the interface between creative industries and small manufacturing.
The creative economy is failing to live up to the fast-growing, young entrepreneurial image it promotes.
Ars Electronica/flickr
The notion of the creative sector driving fulfilling work as cities shed old industries has worn thin. But those creatives might be delivering value of a different kind, offering a more human future.
Edinburgh is one of the European cities that make the most of their creative and cultural assets.
Hamish Irvine/flickr
A comparison of 36 Australian cities finds that, unlike Europe, the data on their creativity and culture are not closely linked to their capacity to generate economic value and social well-being.
How truly innovative are companies like Uber and Airbnb, super-monopolies that capture entire markets by locking vendors and customers into their platforms?
Dan Peled/AAP
The digital pin-ups’ business models actually inhibit serendipity and, indeed, innovation by absorbing entire markets into the sealed-off space of their platforms.
When the smart city looks inhuman: a robot police officer from Dubai greets guests at last November’s Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
Ramon Costa/AAP
The corporate world has taken the lead in promoting various creative/smart city visions, which struggle to be inclusive, let alone entrust citizens with control over their lives.
Writing has never been easy, but sending writers out to find new ideas and people might be one way to help.
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Writers like Frank Moorhouse and Ben Eltham have proposed new long-term fellowships to support writing. But a better way may be more smaller grants, offering opportunities for travel.
SHARP Professor, leader of the Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, UNSW Sydney, and leader of the UNSW Node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney