Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics
Research papers, 2007

This is a very basic handbook, and what makes it interesting is the discourse employed - the choice of language signals how they are conceptualising issues and topics, and how the Cultural Statistics Program is creating frameworks of reference and justification.

Here is an excerpt:

The Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics includes the following activities in
the definition of culture services: creative services, intellectual property rights for
culture products, artistic expression, content services, and preservation services.
Perhaps the most intuitive example of a creative service is a performance.
Live performances are intangibles that can be bought and sold and involve creative
artistic activity. Performances can be final demand products (you pay to see a show)
or intermediate inputs (production services). Examples of live performances are
theatrical plays or musical performances.

This sure is revealing about who their intended audience might be (for this handbook I mean) and how much current knowledge they assume their audience has. For example, live performance, in this excerpt, is regarded as material product where services are cash transactions rather than services that may also include other 'intangible' and 'intuitive' human exchange. How this handbook defines cultural services infers a lot about what is valued in the trade of cultural service, and the directed choice of approach.

Find the whole handbook by clicking here.