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QUAESTIONES GEOGRAPHICAE 34(2) • 2015
CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Rahman nuRković
Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, University in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Manuscript received: September 8, 2014
Revised version: February 27, 2015
nuRković R., 2015. Contemporary development of creative industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Quaestiones Geograph-
icae10.1515/quageo-2015-0014, ISSN
0137-477X.
AbstrAct:
position of creative industries in them are presented. In the second, examples of the development of creative actions
of cities are given. In the third, the role of local policy in the development of new creative industries in Bosnia and
Herzegovina is critically analysed, emphasising some of its shortcomings and drawing up recommendations for future
policy measures. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, contemporary ideas of the development of the creative industries started
to develop at the end of 2001 with the use of the technology of the developed countries of the world.
Key words: creative industries, economic growth, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rahman Nurković, University in Sarajevo, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography, Zmaja od Bosne 35, 71000 Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina; e-mail: rahmannurkovic@hotmail.com
Introduction
Creative industries in Bosnia and Herzegovi-
na, contrary to their low market dimension, have
results in comparison with other segments of the
economy. Their advantage in this country is the
abundance of intellectual capital (Alexanders-
son 1967). During the past decade, Bosnia and
Herzegovina cinematography developed into a
high-quality audiovisual contents for the domes-
tic and the foreign audience. It has scored the
highest world awards for domestic feature-length
-
national Film Festival, the Critics’ Week Grand
Prix at Cannes and the Golden Tiger of the Rot-
terdam Film Festival (Hesmondhalgh 2002). The
-
ble of creating new jobs and producing different
social and economic cohesion, at the same time
being a key medium for the transfer and devel-
opment of cultural values. Its contribution is
about 40%, which is 8.3% above the average for
the economy.
The concentration of intellectual capital is par-
ticularly high in the video industry, IT, multime-
dia, advertising, etc. Resources and possibilities
in the domain of the development of creative
clusters or art incubators in regional centres are
-
tar, Sarajevo and Tuzla. The resources of creative
industries at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovi-
na as well as their infrastructure embrace 3,836
enterprises, which is about 14.7% of their total
number. About 24% of them concentrate in the
area of literary creation and about 30% in archi-
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46
tecture, their lowest proportion being in the area
of music creation and production, at a mere 1.4%.
There are 96 cultural events of international im-
portance per annum, of which almost 50% in cre-
ative industries (in the publishing industry, 27; in
15). With the creation of new jobs in the creative
industries, poverty is reduced, participation in
commercial exchange is achieved, the develop-
ment of new technologies is induced, and the
general quality of living of the Bosnia and Her-
zegovina population improves (Centre for Policy
and Governance 2013).
Methods of work and data sources
The methodological approach was adjusted to
the purpose of the paper, i.e. the contemporary
development of the creative industries in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Studies of the creative indus-
try in the local and regional areas of Bosnia and
Herzegovina were included. In the estimation of
the economic contribution of the development
of new creative industries, almost exclusively
quantitative methods were used, ranging from
stochastic to deterministic. The data were ob-
tained from publications of studies of this topic,
from the author’s own previous researches on the
creative industries, and the statistical documen-
tation of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (About twenty eco-
nomic activities were examined. An evaluation of
the direct impact of the creative industries on the
local and regional development of the economy
in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a good basis for de-
into the overall development of those industries
there. However, this article is devoted to quite a
challenging area of human activity which has not
been explored in Bosnia and Herzegovina so far.
General characteristics of the post-
socialist development of the creative
industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina
A sudden change in the political and social
system of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the begin-
ning of the 1990s happened at a critical moment
in the region’s development. The research on
the creative sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
involving its mapping and formulation of indi-
cators has been conducted with the participation
of cities and urban organisations under the Eu-
ropean Union programme of E761 Convergence
since 2004. It mostly embraces the gathering and
processing of the available statistical data on cre-
ative business industries as well as data obtained
directly through questionnaires from registered
economic entities.
This partner programme on the creative in-
-
in the cross-border development in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, with an aim of opening the door to
research on and the promotion of values of the
creative sector and a knowledge-based econo-
my, thus strengthening the capacities of the cre-
ative sector through the support and initiatives
of young people. The increase in the importance
of knowledge in Bosnia and Herzegovina, espe-
cially innovative knowledge, is largely connected
with globalisation processes. The introduction of
innovations to the economy, primarily through
the creation and use of information and commu-
-
Today, global-range communication in the
world has become much easier. There are a num-
ber of studies that show the development of cre-
ative industries in the world (Oinas, Lagendijk
2005). However, in the global economy cities will
compete among themselves. The ease with which
people and capital can move makes each city
strive to attract and keep as many ‘valuable’ res-
idents, workers, visitors and investments as pos-
sible, particularly those whose activity is inno-
vation-oriented, i.e. associated with a high level
of knowledge intensity and creativity. In Bosnia
and Herzegovina this area includes the creative
cities of Tuzla, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Mostar, and
Zenica (Fig. 1).
The Bosnia and Herzegovina cities have ad-
justed to changes that have occurred in social
and economic development. The ability to take
advantage of the new opportunities created by
those changes is an exercise in creativity. Adap-
tiveness also implies openness to novelty and in-
novations. According to Hospers (2003), there are
three other characteristics that boost the chances
of the appearance of creativity, which in turn en-
hances the development of the knowledge-based
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CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 47
economy in a city. These are concentration, diver-
sity, and instability. Urban creativity is mostly
This concentration of people in cities creates
conditions favourable to a faster development of
communication and interactions. From an eco-
nomic point of view, in Bosnia and Herzegovina
cities the most important is the diversity of the
economic structure, not only regarding the labour
market (availability of workers and a variety of
skills), but also the types of activity conducted.
It is usually assumed that diversity is associated
with the size of a city. However, several studies
-
biguously any relationship between the size of a
city and the diversity of its economic structure
(Davies, Donoghue 1993).
Another important aspect of the research on
urban creativity in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the
determination of a city’s economic base (Landry
with a system of production or with consump-
tion opportunities? So far it has been the prevail-
Fig. 1. Centres of the creative industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011.
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48
ing opinion that production is the main driver of
urban growth, and that the cities of Tuzla, Zeni-
ca, Mostar and Sarajevo as production centres
generate wealth precisely because they produce
chance to be ‘creative’, but not all of them become
so. An indispensable condition is urban creativity
that includes creative actions and a creative en-
-
dition. Sometimes we must help the city become
creative through a policy that aims to improve its
environment or initiate creative actions. The pol-
icy often leads to the development of local and
regional business support for infrastructure that
plays a key role in the growth of the creative and
cultural industries in the city (Haase, Vaishar,
Characteristics of the labour force in
the creative industries of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
At the time when man is being replaced by
sophisticated technologies, creative industries af-
Contemporary knowledge is very complex and
-
-
nology, and investment in the creative industries
(Chapain, De Propris 2009). Those industries
transformation of Bosnia and Herzegovina cit-
ies. The sector of creative industries is extremely
heterogeneous, therefore it can hardly be charac-
terised precisely as a whole. Such a broader per-
spective on the systemic change, not only from
the point of view of the main urban centres, en-
ables a more detailed insight into the role of the
creative sector in the transformation of urban ar-
eas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The labour force is undoubtedly an extremely
mobile location factor which followed the crea-
tive industries and caused the biggest population
movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Specif-
ic creative branches have different requirements
with regard to the quantitative and qualitative
characteristics of the labour force (Scott 2004).
So, the labour force in the creative branches of
industry was a basis for intense development of
all activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2011,
the creative sector accounted for 3,581 of the
country’s total active employed population. Ar-
chitecture made up 29.7%, publishing industry,
24.3%, advertising, 19.7%, the fashion industry,
5.6%, music production, 4.5%, radio and televi-
-
ture and art, 2.6%, and video and multimedia,
1.6% (Table 1, Fig. 2).
The discharge of the labour force in other
activities was considerably faster than the crea-
tion of new jobs in the creative industries, which
caused economic migrations of the population in
urban centres. There has been a permanent in-
crease in the active population in the creative sec-
The largest part of the active population is em-
ployed in the creative branches of industry and
in tertiary activities.
An entrepreneurial or business approach to
creativity in Bosnia and Herzegovina is at the in-
cubation stage, and is often frozen due to com-
plex state administration, so there has been lit-
tle research on the cultural and creative sector,
Table 1. Branches of the creative industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011.
Branches Number of registered enterprises Share in total number of creative industries
Literary creation and publishing 873 24.38%
Musical creativity and production 162 4.52%
Video and multimedia industry 57 1.60%
Advertising 708 19.77%
Architecture 1,065 29.74%
Filmmaking and cinematography 103 2.88%
Radio and television 158 4.41%
Entertainment and leisure 158 4.41%
Cultural heritage 96 2.68%
Fashion industry 201 5.61%
Total 3,581 100.00%
Source: adapted from the Centre for Policy and Governance; Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013.
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CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 49
and there is no base of its mainstays. Therefore,
a methodological approach for the mapping and
preliminary description of the four urban centres
in Bosnia and Herzegovina was provided by an
experienced partner from the European Union
(Davies, Donoghue 1993).
The results presented in this article should be
understood exclusively as ones in the creative
sectors of the cities of Tuzla, Banja Luka, Mos-
tar and Sarajevo. Such creativity, enriched by a
business approach and free of traditional slug-
gishness, enables young people better expression
and opens new doors to the European market
could be a basis for future researchers and sim-
development of the creative sector in the cities of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. A relatively small num-
ber of studies have been devoted to the place and
role of the creative sector in this process. How-
ever, it should be emphasised that the regional
urban centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina entered
their creative path later than those in Western
Europe, such as infrastructure development or
public transport.
Role of the local policy in the
development of new creative industries
There are a growing number of examples in-
the development of culture, and for the improve-
ment of the economic and social attractiveness
of European cities. Cities like Tuzla, Banja Luka,
Sarajevo, Mostar and Zenica are known for such
a cultural policy oriented toward infrastructure
development which should support small and
the creative sector, such as design, music, digital
media and television. Such a policy in Bosnia and
Herzegovina implies the establishment of forums
for the creative sector within which the needs of
capital funds for business ventures supported by
local authorities whose purpose is to improve the
promotion of products and services generated in
the creative sector (Chapain, De Propris 2009).
Other strategies involve investment in labora-
tories of digital media, the organisation of fairs at
which new design developments are presented,
for business development or business education
of the population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This kind of local policy is described as a strategy
of culture production and is based on an econom-
ic approach. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the role
of the creative sector in the development policies
of municipalities and cities can be described as
-
-
tive example, although interlocutors say that the
Fig. 2. Share in the total number of creative industries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011.
Source: adapted from the Centre for Policy and Governance, 2013.
Share in total number of creative industries (%)
2.88%
4.41%
4.41%
2.68%
5.61%
29.74% 19.77%
1.60%
4.52%
24.38%
Literary creation and publishing
Musical creativity and production
Video and multimedia industry
Advertising
Architecture
Filmmaking and cinematography
Radio and television activities
Entertainment and Leisure
Cultural heritage
The fashion industry
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50
been recognised only formally, and that concrete
-
-
nicipality of Tuzla recognised the importance of
the role of the creative sector in city development
already six years ago. In 2007, it implemented a
project together with the British Council: the Tu-
zla Creative Industry Project. The main objective
of the local policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is to
support the development of creative industries.
The UK South East Forum project is a regional
programme of the British Council jointly organ-
-
govina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia,
Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and the United
Kingdom. Under the programme UK SEE Forum
, the British Council has pro-
moted and developed the creative industry in the
countries of south-eastern Europe as a continua-
tion of the started programmes and also in other
countries of the world with an open concept ad-
equate to the conditions obtaining in those coun-
tries.
The programme in south-eastern Europe
aimed at exploiting the potential and resources
of local cultural and economic milieux on the
example of selected cities. Those were: Tuzla,
Podgorica, Split, Novi Sad, Priština, Plovdiv, Jaš,
and Tirana. Tuzla was chosen as an example of
a creative city in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Scott
2004). At the moment, there is no single govern-
mental institution dealing with the development
of the creative industries, except the Centre for
Policies and Management in Sarajevo. Non-ad-
justment of public attitudes and the non-exist-
ence of a consensus regarding the role and future
development of the creative industries in Bosnia
and Herzegovina is only one more element that
causes autarchic and elemental actions at all lev-
els of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In
this sense, the approach to the creative industries
must be oriented towards long-term sustaina-
bility, taking into consideration all conditions
contributing to the creation of a common com-
munication language and the establishment of
an equal dialogue between sectors characterised
-
sessing creative skills and talents (Landry 2002).
The beginning of the 21st century marks a
breakthrough in the urban and metropolitan pol-
icies of post-socialist cities in terms of activities
designed to enhance the competitiveness of their
entire metropolitan areas, increase their struc-
tural and spatial cohesion, and develop modern
economic sectors and creative social initiatives.
The present-day development philosophy of the
post-socialist cities encompasses elements of the
growth of the creative sector, a knowledge-based
economy, and innovative sectors relying on high-
-
2014).
Conclusions
Over the past two decades Bosnia and Her-
zegovina has witnessed a wide-ranging trans-
formation in many aspects. The introduction of
a market-oriented economy after half a century
of socialism has brought about deep social, eco-
nomic, cultural and political changes. Hence our
contribution aims to explore the role of creativity
and creative industries in the post-socialist urban
settlements of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Creative
-
ic transformation of its cities. The sector of crea-
tive industries is extremely heterogeneous here,
-
ly as a whole. Cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
have adjusted to changes occurring in social and
economic
ability to take advantage of the new opportu-
nities created by those changes is an exercise in
creativity. Urban creativity is mostly stimulated
Bosnia and Herzegovina cities has created con-
ditions favourable to a faster development of the
creative industries.
There are a number of examples indicating the
-
ment of culture and the fostering of the economic
and social attractiveness of European cities. Cit-
ies like Tuzla, Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Mostar and
Zenica are famous for cultural policies oriented
towards the construction of infrastructure sup-
porting small and new business ventures in the
design, music, digital media and television. Such
a policy implies the establishment of forums for
the creative sector on which the needs of vari-
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CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 51
-
proach to creativity in Bosnia and Herzegovina is
at the incubation stage, and is often frozen due to
complex state administration, so there have been
little research on the cultural /creative sector,
and there is no base containing its main bearers.
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