BOOK REVIEW---CULTURE IS NOT AN INDUSTRY

Written by: Duncan B. on 12 September 2024

Justin O’Connor, the author of Culture Is Not An Industry - Reclaiming Art and Culture For The Common Good is Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of South Australia. The book is one of the Manchester Capitalism book series. This series of books investigates various aspects of the capitalist system.

Culture Is Not An Industry tells the story of how twenty-five years ago the British Government, following neo-liberal policies, rebranded art and culture as “creative industries.” Culture went from being “a public good to a private commodity economy driven by individual sovereign consumers.”

The author says that “the key argument of the book is that culture, as an object of public policy, should be moved out of “industry” and back into the sphere of public responsibility along health, education, social welfare and basic infrastructure.”

A considerable part of modern culture is controlled by mainly US media and technology companies such as Disney, Amazon, Google and Apple. They control streaming services such as You Tube and Spotify. Recording labels, cinema theatre chains, amusement parks, concert promotion and event ticketing are owned by a handful of companies. At the same time many artists, writers, musicians and other cultural workers are poorly paid and lead precarious existences.

Culture Is Not An Industry discusses many different aspects of culture and the need to get it out of the hands of the bureaucrats and bean counters. It is worth reading by anyone working in culture or who is interested in culture. 

However, I do not agree with the author’s criticism of Marx’s theory of class society having a legal, political, and intellectual superstructure erected on an economic base, which Marx put forward in his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. This theory is central to our understanding as Marxists of the structure of class society, and the place of culture in the superstructure. 

Culture is an important component of the struggle for independence and socialism in Australia. It must be taken out of the hands of the capitalists and returned to the workers and their allies in the struggle.

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