In the last ten years the creative industries have become one of the most fashionable and talked-about components of the global economy. Are they just froth on the surface of exuberant capitalism, about to be blown away by global recession, or are they a paradigm for a new networked future in which quality rather than quantity will become the ultimate arbiter of success in a world whose population is growing but whose resources are diminishing?
In After The Crunch the editors Tom Bewick, John Holden, John Kieffer, John Newbigin and Shelagh Wright join forces with 42 artists, entrepreneurs, commentators, analysts, policy-makers, policy-sceptics, academics, financiers – and citizens – to set out their hopes and fears for the future.