Cultural Economics

Suresh Ranjan Goduka

The writer is a TATA-RGVN Senior Fellow

Often we come across people, especially in culturally sensitive areas like the northeastern part of India, who are so active culturally yet so inactive economically.
Popular perception has it that people of a cultural activist type are economically non-performers.

Lack of informed systematic management of cultural activities and inability in combining cultural activities with economic development are a couple of grounds for the above scenario. This calls for the concept called Cultural Economics.
Cultural Economics regards culture as an economic activity and an engine of economic development. It is concerned with the economic organization of the cultural sector.

For this purpose, the cultural outputs including creative/ performing arts may be regarded as cultural goods or products, which accumulate to cultural industries.
When we create, disseminate or even consume any cultural work, we engage ourselves into an economic activity. This is Cultural Economics.

So when a ‘culturally active and full of dreams’ youth or their group comes to any banking or micro-finance institution requesting for a loan for their next venture - say a music band or a theatre group, they may be given a chance and suggestions for how they could be more professionally organised and thus loan-able.

With required money in hand, they may do wonders and bring economic prosperity to themselves and their families. At the same time they will keep the society culturally active and alive, which is very much crucial in a region like ours. Culture unites.  

The mobile theatre industry in Assam is a fine example of successful cultural economics. With 45 active units and 4600 direct employment, the industry has an annual turnover of 252 million rupees! That too without any grant or subsidy from the governments or others. Instead the industry has supported scores of social institutions like schools, naamghars, sports clubs, NGOs who invite and arganise the theatres locally.

So when talk so much about economic culture, we may also pay attention to cultural economics. In fact, in some cases, the later may lead to the former.