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    1. Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE)
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    Research

    [Translate to English:] Dekoratives Bild
    [Translate to English:]
    • Research Concept
    • Research Agenda

    Research Concept

    Our understanding of research in the field of the creative economies implies processes and practices of creation and experimentation, curating and entrepreneurial engagement. Accordingly, we see research as a field of action in the creative economies that enables describing and interpreting key dynamics, practices, strategies and transformations.

    Five aspects are central to our research concept:

    1. Research as a process of creation

    Any attempt to describe and interpret the dynamics of the creative economies also implies a specific perspective that reveals certain phenomena and hides others. Developing different models helps reveal interconnections. We look for perspectives that challenge established ideas. We develop new methods, alternative approaches and laboratories for experiments. And we create platforms that enable controversially debating heterogeneous perspectives.

    2. Research in the risk area โ€œbetweenโ€ established positions and high-risk projects

    Research must consciously penetrate areas in which issues appear controversial, uncertain and complex, i.e. into the space โ€œbetweenโ€ known perspectives and ideas. Accordingly, we are interested in new links between forms of creativity and economic models. We zoom in and zoom out to consider micro and macro perspectives. We combine quantitative and qualitative approaches. And we complement proven methods with experimental approaches.

    3. Evolving research practices

    According to our understanding of research, our work is embedded in very different research practices. We use mapping methods. We develop models. We experiment with actors on the ground. We work on case studies. We carry out experimental statistics. We develop new concepts and a language to describe the creative economies. We curate workshops and panels. We encourage discussion in informal and unfamiliar contexts. We record our research in various textual formats. And we are constantly working with new actors. As a result, our approach is constantly evolving, not least because we question established ideas and constantly test new models.

    4. Manifold forms of knowledge

    Our research approach prevents a single, dominant form of scientific knowledge. Instead, we move between multiple and heterogeneous forms of knowledge. Thus, some relationships can best be illustrated by time series, others by outstanding examples. Alternatively, we conduct staged debates on stage. What counts is not the individual data point, but the resulting ecosystem of approaches, references, connections and contradictions. There is no such thing as a neutral โ€œview from nowhere.โ€ Rather, we seek to develop knowledge resources that other actors can use for their research initiatives, entrepreneurial strategies and value creation.

    5. Self-application

    We see ourselves not only as a research team that explores the creative economies as a research object. We also consider ourselves actors in the field of the creative economies and collaborate with other actors as co-curators in various forms and formats. This concept of research determines our research agenda. At the same time, we strive to continuously expand the repertoire of possible projects, practices, perspectives and forms of knowledge and to include others actors, who bring in alternative approaches. These diverse efforts generate precisely those surprises that challenge us, fascinate us and advance our research.

    Research Agenda

    1. Which dynamics characterise the creative economies? By creative economies, we mean the economic, social, cultural and scientific fields of action in which new things are created โ€” fields in which new ideas are born and new models of โ€œeconomiesโ€ and โ€œbusinessโ€ developed and tested. Besides creation and innovation processes, the dynamics of economisation and culturalisation are also central in this respect.
       
    2. How is value created and how is its valuation ensured? The creative economies revolve around new value creation constellations: Which value is created for whom (โ€œoutputโ€)? Which resources are created, mobilised and invested to achieve this goal (โ€œinputโ€)? Which processes and networks link input and output? And how are evaluation processes, platforms and instruments changing? We explore these questions to better understand these interrelationships from a global perspective.
       
    3. How do actors and their wider environment view creativity? There is much talk today about creativity, creation and innovation. The debate also touches on what constitutes a real โ€œcreativity dispositiveโ€ and how to explain the compulsion to innovate. We observe which concepts and practices of creation are important. We describe creation and innovation processes in different fields of action. We focus on โ€œcreativityโ€ as value. And we discuss the competition to locate creativity in different fields.
       
    4. Which entrepreneurial strategies are pursued? Since value creation can justifiably be understood and evaluated very differently, creative economy actors are constantly challenged to not only postulate values in their entrepreneurial strategies, but also to make the necessary evaluations. Entrepreneurial strategies posit value creation, create the organisational conditions for its current and future generation and implement value systems in the form of evaluation processes, instruments and platforms.
       
    5. Which alternative institutionalisations are demanded โ€” and realised? Time and again, the question arises whether new value creation and corresponding strategies in the context of existing institutions have a chance. Or to what extent must these contexts be critically questioned and anchored in alternative institutionalisations. The creative economies are a laboratory for such alternative institutionalisations, which are prerequisite to creating something new, as well as to establishing new forms of value creation and new forms of appreciation.
       
    6. What are the consequences for governance practice? The creative economies are constantly evolving as fields of action. These dynamics of change imply that there can be no static description of the creative economies. Nor is it possible to control and plan their development using conventional means and methods. This in turn impacts governance practice: Instead of management, we speak of โ€œcuration,โ€ which creates contexts and thus simultaneously becomes an actor itself.