As the world faces extreme economic, environmental and political crises, this bold and accessible Advanced Introduction argues for a future-facing approach to the creative economy and creative innovation. The book analyses contemporary and historical arts and culture whilst assessing historical shifts from national to global cultures; analogue to digital technologies; and individualist to systems thinking.

Key features include:

• A new approach to the creative industries based on complex systems and evolutionary dynamics
• Combining humanities-based analysis with economics of innovation
• A critique of important theorists and intellectual traditions involved in the study of modern mediated creativity
• Reconceptualizing arts, copyright, cities, time, global media and social agency
• A thought-provoking reassessment of modernity to pivot creative enterprise for the challenges of the Anthropocene era.

Scholars and students of media and communications studies, political economy and economics will benefit from the new approach to creative media and culture, and its proposals to rethink the economics of creativity and innovation. This book will be a helpful guide for policy-makers, consultants and freelancers who work across the borderlines of art, media, technology, business and regulation.