THE NORDIC ‘CULTURAL INDUSTRIES’: A CROSS-NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PLACE OF THE CULTURAL Geografiska Annaler · 85 B (2003) ·3 167 THE NORDIC ‘CULTURAL INDUSTRIES’: A CROSS- NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PLACE OF THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES IN DENMARK, FINLAND, NORWAY AND SWEDEN by Dominic Power Power, D. 2003: The Nordic ‘cultural industries’: a cross-national assessment of the place of the cultural industries in Denmark, Fin- land, Norway and Sweden. Geogr. Ann., 85 B (3): 167–180. ABSTRACT. In this paper an attempt is made to measure the cul- tural industries in a cross-national context. The paper starts with a discussion of the definition and delineation of the term the ‘cul- tural industries’. It is argued that a large range of goods and serv- ices may be considered to be cultural industry products and that it is important to place the production and exchange of such prod- ucts in the context of an industrial systems approach. Following this the concept is operationalised using data on employment and firm activity from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Re- sults are presented which suggest that overall growth in both em- ployment and firm numbers has been especially strong in the cul- tural industries. However, interesting differences between the countries emerged from the data. Thus regional dimensions are then examined resulting in the finding that in all four countries cultural industries have a strong attraction to urban areas but an even stronger propensity to agglomerate. It is suggested that the spatial dynamics observed may be key to the development of the industries’ competencies and success. In summary the paper presents results of extensive data analysis that show the cultural industries’ important contribution to Scandinavian economies and labour markets. Key words: cultural industries, economic geography, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Introduction The role of culture in the functioning and develop- ment of Nordic economies has become an increas- ingly popular topic for both researchers and policy- makers alike. In particular, there has been a grow- ing awareness in recent years that ‘cultural’ indus- tries such as film, music and the media are increas- ingly important and vibrant parts of many coun- tries’ economies. In recent years governments and regional authorities in the Nordic countries have begun to take seriously the idea of cultural activi- ties being crucial components of their economies in need of industrial support and development. This concern to think of cultural activities as more than pleasant distractions or ephemeral aspects of a na- tion’s social life strongly resonates with the under- lying concern of this study: to treat these activities as part of important and dynamic industrial sys- tems. In recognition of the fact that these industries are important not only to employment (Casey, 1996; Greffe, 1997; Pratt, 1997b; European Com- mission, 1998; European Union, 2000; Power, 2002), regional development (Power and Hallen- creutz, 2002; Hallencreutz and Power, 2003), trade, consumption, and indeed wider social goals, this article attempts to measure their impact on a set of neighbouring countries. Moreover, the article uses industrial data to examine the economic impor- tance, changes in and trajectories of these indus- tries, and investigates these industries empirically in order to gauge something of their contemporary economic importance. Encompassing sectors and commodified activi- ties as diverse as architecture and advertising, de- sign and music, the cultural industries’ industrial structures and dynamics, however, remain relatively under-researched (DiMaggio and Hirsch, 1976; Pratt, 1997a; Sadler, 1997; Scott, 2000b; Power, 2002). Notwithstanding the fact that a large variety of definitions and approaches to the ‘cultural indus- tries’ exist, 1 relatively little has been done which treats them as part of integrated industrial sectors or systems (Hirsch, 1972; Becker, 1974; Girard, 1982; Kibbe, 1982; Björkegren, 1992; Pratt, 1997a; 1997b; Scott, 1999, 2000a; Scott, 2000b). This ar- ticle is based on a view that the cultural industries should be subject to analysis that is concerned with their industrial functioning and transformation that occurs within industrial systems of interrelated ac- tors existing within specific socio-institutional and competitive business environments. The paper opens with a discussion of the study methodology used and then moves on to the pres- entation of the results of an analysis of industrial data on Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden