Cultura, industria cultural e innovación en la Comunidad Autónoma de Euskadi: una especialización pendiente

Digitisation and globalisation are leading not only to technical and cultural changes but also to social changes whose consequences are unpredictable. In this context, the culture industry and, on a different level, the creative industries (whose status needs to be determined) have a core role to play. Here, culture is seen as the subjective «other side» of the looking-glass in which tangible, intangible and systemic technological innovation is reflected. In this conceptual framework the Basque Country can be deemed to have fallen short in the past and also in the present. That shortfall can be seen in domestic spending on culture and, in part, on the type of public spending which, in any event, acts as a counterbalance. In a country that realises the need to stress innovation and has a specific, minority culture within its milieu, the digital age offers the occasion to correct its course so that there is innovation in culture and at the same time a cultural sector is developed as a specialist area endowed with major creative, cultural and educational resources. The selection of Donostia as European Capital of Culture is an opportunity for a medium-term move to support culture and communication in all three Basque territories.