Introduction
In 1990s, the rise of cultural and creative industries rapidly attracted the attention of numerous developed countries. It has become a high-profile way to create wealth as well as an important impetus for social and economic regeneration in a large number of countries and regions. In 2015, Ernst & Young researched and analyzed 11 cultural and creative industries in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East and the Asian-Pacific region, and published an investigation report named Cultural Times. According to the report, the cultural and creative industries create nearly 30 million jobs and capitalize 2250 billion dollars every year, which make them become the major drivers of the economies of developed and developing countries (Ernst & Young 2015).
As an important part of cultural and creative industries, the development of museums can also bring huge economic benefits since it affects job creation, income generation and expert earning. What is more, it plays a significant role in education, cultural transmission and improving people’s quality of life. In this way, this paper mainly discusses the role of museums in social and economic regeneration. It firstly reviews related literatures in term of this topic, and then demonstrates the impact of museums based on the research of Museum of Liverpool. Finally, it draws out some more general conclusions.
Literature review
It was Britain that firstly put forward cultural and creative industries. In The Creative Economy, John Howkins (2001) pointed out that, the design and development of creative products and services mainly rely on personal innovative thinking, knowledge, skills and ability to innovate. At the same time, with the help of developing intellectual property and protecting individual creative products and services, people could gain wealth. Meanwhile, Howkins (2001) also stressed the importance of intellectual property. Intellectual property is involved with patent, copyright, design and various industries related with the protection of intellectual property, which are also associated with a great many corporations and organizations. All these organizations and industries constitute strong creative system and produce creative economy.
In the end of the 20th century, as western developed countries transformed from industrialization to post-industrialization, and land, energy and environmental problems have gradually become the major factors which restricted economic development; the development of creative economy even surpasses the development of service economy. In the era of creative economy, it is innovation rather than natural resources, a large number of simple labors promote economic growth. The key factors of creative economy theory are technology, creativity, talents and inclusiveness. Joseph S. Nye and William A. Owens (1996) pointed out that, in the era of information and knowledge economy, creativity and knowledge are advocated by various economic entities all over the world because knowledge and creativity are easy to be spread and they are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Australian scholar Throsby also supports creative economy.
For him, the maximum of economic values and cultural values reflects the effectiveness of creativity (Throsby 2008). What is more, Australian scholars Jason Potts and Stuart Cunningham carried out an empirical study in term of the economic and social functions of cultural and creative industries, and they pointed out that the values created by cultural and creative industries are not confined to create creative products and services as well as increase employment, but also play a ground-breaking role in directing the economics (Potts & Cunningham 2008).
In The Theory of Economic Development, Joseph Alois Schumpeter advanced innovation theory. He argued that, innovation is not restricted to technology but brings economic values. For Schumpeter (1934), innovation promotes technical improvement, and the application of new technology promotes new products and creates bigger economic values. Schumpeter also put forward a new definition of entrepreneurship. For him, the function of entrepreneurs is to revolutionize or reform the pattern of production through opening up a new source of supply, reorganizing an industry, producing a new product and service, and exploiting an invention and so on (Sledzik 2013).
In the meantime, Schumpeter believed that innovation is the creative destruction. In his opinion, innovation could break previous track and inject new vitality to economic development through introducing new production condition and production factors, continually reforming inner economic structure and form new structure (Sledzik 2013). Schumpeter’s innovation theory focuses on the role of innovation in economic development, while the key of cultural and creative industries is innovation as well. Based on innovation spirit and innovation thinking, cultural and creative industries break previous mode of production and sale, update economic structure and promote economic development.
In the middle of 1980s, Paul Romer, Robert Lucas and other scholars raised an objection to the new classical economic theory which stresses the external forces of economic growth, and they believed that economic development mainly depend on the internal forces of economic system (Nelson 1997). Therefore, they put forward new growth theory. Different from Robert Merton Solow who believed that technology is exogenic, new growth theory regards technology as endogenous variable and stimulates economic growth on the basis of endogenous technical progress.
Furthermore, new growth theory puts more emphasis on the importance of human capital, technology and knowledge (Ruttan 1998). According to Kenneth Joseph Arrow’s Learning by Doing Model, output not only relies on the input of tangible factors, but also the process of learning and accumulation (Arrow 1962). In other words, the development of new thinking helps to improve the quality. Moreover, although classic economy maintains that factor input follows the rule of diminishing marginal returns, the Romer model stresses increasing returns since knowledge has the advantages such as low cost, potential for replication and communicability. New growth theory lays stress on knowledge and human factors, which provide endless power for economic development. At the same time, the development of cultural and creative industries also attaches important to knowledge and creative talents, which are the basis of cultural and creative industries. Based on the new growth theory, creative talents, creative thinking, knowledge and technology are the drivers for the sustainable development.
In addition, numerous scholars pay attention to the role of museums. Bassett (1993) firstly argued that, with the gradual rise of heritage experience, museums come into the view of policy makers who regard museums economy as the core part of the strategy of local economic development and the key step of urban regeneration. Based on researching the printing in general British museums, Hudson (1992) believed that museum publications are the combination of commerce, communication and culture, and it is meaningful to develop museum cultural publications. Furthermore, Tony Kent (2010) paid much attention to the role of museum stores, and he maintained that museum stores help visitors to enrich their experience. In particular, traditional museums have already shifted the focus of work to certain creative staffs, and museum stores provide such a place for visitors to collect, comprehend and learn. With the help of creative products and services, museum stores attract visitors and gain economic efficiency. Besides, Al-Ragam (2014) put forward the process of developing cultural production through researching the Kuwait National Museum.
In general, according to the innovation theory, new growth theory and creative economy theory, cultural and creative industries play a significant part in promoting economic growth and optimizing the industrial structure. As an important part of cultural and creative industries, museum not only play its role in collecting and educating, but also enriching the cultural connotation of urban space and regenerating social and economic vitality.
“Museum of Liverpool: one city, many voices“
According to Simon Tait (2008), “museums in Britain are experiencing what many believe is their biggest culture shift in 150 years”. Compared to the old days when displayed objects were the emphasis, current museums pay more attention to the telling of stories in order to satisfy the requirements of varied and new visitors. In particular, museums have the potential to positively influence social and economical regeneration. Museum of Liverpool is an example.
Liverpool was in the dark ages a decade ago, when the militant controlled labor council paid much attention to the services and jobs in working class and pursued unsustainable and costly urban develop strategy. At that time, hostility to business and arts activities brought Liverpool to the verge of bankruptcy. It was until 1987 when labor councilors were disqualified from office that the cultural industries started to move up the political agenda (Lorente 1996). Meanwhile, Merseyside Arts and Merseyside Country Council’s report on the economic benefits of arts and tourism contributed to the change of the City Councils’ strategic thinking. Based on the report, arts were not only the major drivers for the direct employment and source of turnover, but also greatly promoted the growth of tourists and improvement of middle managers’ quality of life (Merseyside Arts 1986).
What is more, the major cultural projects of Merseyside Development Corporation such as the Maritime Museum and the Tate Gallery of the North offered more proof in proving the role of arts in economic regeneration. After that, more reports were made to further stress that arts play an important role in appealing tourism, creating wealth and job, building image, encouraging community participation and improving social well-being (Lorente 1996). When it comes to the 1991, the cultural industries directly created 3100 jobs and generated an income of 97 million pounds for Liverpool, which contributed to the development of arts infrastructure (Lorente 1996). On the other hand, considering that the city suffered from the continued loss of economic activity and population, which made it difficult for arts organizations in Liverpool to retain local talents and increase audience numbers; the city is shaped as the national and international center of arts training, which greatly improve its image, take full advantage of local arts infrastructural resources, and attract the investment of cultural industries and organizations.
Besides, as Neyret and Jimenez-Blanco argued that, museums are regarded as an effective way to preserving the deserted heartlands of the urban heritage (Lorente 1996). For one thing, the political move which advocated the availability of space for the citizens promoted the reuse of abandoned buildings for museums. For the other thing, since these museums tended to be the only places available at affordable price for the citizens, the reuse of abandoned buildings for museums become an important cultural policy. In addition, under the influence of post-modernism, the policy makers seek to turn the museums to the typical city landmarks which is called as ‘industrial archaeology’ (Alfrey & Putnam 1992). In short, Museum of Liverpool develops rapidly since the city has learned a lesson of a costly and unsustainable strategy of urban development, and it also has realized the economic importance of museums in creating money and job, improving city image, and enriching people’s life. In addition, the loss of population and economic activity, the tradition of preserving abandoned buildings and the influence of post-modernism all contribute to the situation that the Museum of Liverpool becomes a potent force in social and economic regeneration.
In particular, the Museum of Liverpool is the newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group, which was opened to the public on June 19th 2011 and replaced the former Museum of Liverpool Life (Museum of Liverpool 2019). It is the first 21st century public building of Liverpool. Compared to the former one, the Museum of Liverpool is able to display many more items from the collections. Specifically, more than 6,000 objects are housed in this museum (BBC News 2011). What is more, this museum also seeks to be more in contact with the audiences and local communities. Janet Dugdale, the director of urban history for the Museum of Liverpool argued that, people carried out reminiscence movement fifteen years ago, while the Museums Association Conference in 1995 did not support the reminiscence of museums at that time; however, time is different, and it is not rational to build a museum which is about history but without social responsibility (Tait 2008). Moreover, the curators of the Museum of Liverpool try to tell the story of Liverpool completely for the sake of making contact with the local communities. Generally, the core subject of this museum is the stories of the city, such as its history, humanity and development in the future.
It enables the audiences to see the changes of the city as well as the course of time since the industrial revolution. For example, visitors in this museum are able to see the scene that how the last dockers in this city were out of work in 1998 after a three-year strike (Tait 2008). The museum enables visitors to figure out what the first Chinatown in Britain looks like with the help of the contact with schools in Shanghai. What is more, thanks to the international slavery museum opened by National Museums Liverpool group, visitors have the opportunity to understand the slaver trade four centuries ago, and reflect how the economic basis determines the superstructure and how economic development promotes civilization, freedom and democracy. In the meantime, the museum makes it possible for visitors to explore how the slave trade affects the modern society and further figure out the examples of slavery in current era. In addition, the Museum of Liverpool also presents the immigrant societies on Merseyside.
For the sake of telling stories rather than displaying the collections, museum only uses one Singer sewing machine which had been owned by an Italian immigrant tailor in the 1930s to tell the history (Tait 2008). Therefore, it is not likely for the visitors to lose themselves in exploring which machine is more beautiful than others but recognizing an Italian immigrant tailor once lived in the city and made his or her living. Moreover, large spaces are saved since museums go beyond the display and interpretation of large collections. Designers, curators and historians have more spaces to bring their own experience and ideas to the audiences as well as make sense of history. In general, the Museum of Liverpool positively plays its role in local regeneration and providing a space for the local community to further participate in social issues.
Generally, Museum of Liverpool plays an important role in economic regeneration. It has been a major supporter of the local economy. It had welcomed almost 5 million audiences since its opening, and the recorded visits in 2015/16 was 7665,368 (National Museums Liverpool 2017a). According to the report of National Museums Liverpool (2017a), Museum of Liverpool and other 5 museums and galleries directly employ 470 full-time people and 160 volunteers, and almost 90 percent of these staffs are local people. The museums and galleries in Liverpool directly contributed to 20 million pounds in UK Gross Value Added, help to create 42 million pounds Gross Value Added and more than 1,000 jobs on a Full Time Equivalent basis, and rise to 53 million Gross Valued Added for the North West and more than 1,200 jobs on a Full Time Equivalent basis (National Museums Liverpool 2017a).
Thanks to the Museum of Liverpool and other museums and galleries in Liverpool, this city acquires new drivers for economic development. As the new growth theory advocates that, knowledge and human capital provides sustainable power for economic growth. Different from traditional primary industry and secondary industry which depend greatly on natural resources and negatively influence environment, cultural and creative industries such as Museum of Liverpool are environmentally friendly and sustainable. What is more, Museum of Liverpool and other museums and galleries enable Liverpool to achieve the
optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. According to Schumpeter’s innovation theory, innovation spirit and thinking breaks previous model of production and selling, updates economic structure and promotes economic growth. For instance, the development of Museum of Liverpool attracts a large number of visitors who are from outside Liverpool City Region and boosts the rapid development of middle and small-sized enterprises such as Brew Tea Company (National Museums Liverpool 2007b).
What is more, Museum of Liverpool plays a significant part in social regeneration. As mentioned before, Museum of Liverpool attaches much importance to visitors’ various voices, and it seeks to establish close contact with the local community. It positively builds close relation with vulnerable, deprived and potentially excluded individuals and groups, which enables people to tell their own stories and give their voices. With the help of the anti-racism organizations, LGBT social justice organizations and other institutions, Museum of Liverpool is able to develop relevant and new content for public programs and exhibitions.
At the same time, Museum of Liverpool actively engages with schools and students since it believes that it has an important effect on students’ overall confidence, attainment and awareness levels. It tries to be a ‘Cultural Parent’ for the kids and children in the city. In 2004/2005, the number of schoolchildren visiting museums was 92,558, but it turned out to 163,465 in 2015/2016 (National Museums Liverpool 2017b). Meanwhile, Museum of Liverpool also has strong contact with more than 20 different colleges, and provides lectures, work placements and online courses for college students (National Museums Liverpool 2017b). Besides, Museum of Liverpool also pays much attention to local people’s health and wellbeing. For example, front-of-house staffs in Liverpool’s national museums are trained in both autism and dementia awareness. These museums seek to be autism friendly communities through cooperating with the Department of Health and the Autism Alliance (National Museums Liverpool 2017a).
Conclusion
As land, energy and environment have become major factors which restrict economic development since the end of 20th century, cultural and creative industries gradually become the major drivers for national and local development. What is more, museums engage in the wave of cultural and creative industries as an indispensable subject. Museum of Liverpool is such an example. It greatly promotes economic regeneration through attracting numerous visitors, providing a large number of jobs and facilitating the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. At the same time, Museum of Liverpool attaches much importance to provide opportunities for visitors to tell their own stories and build close link with local community.
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