Art in the Information Economy

Economically, art has been viewed as a resource, a commodity, a process, a secondary good, a technology, and as capital. The role of art as a producer of and storage for cultural capital has historically been the most important for society as a whole. Today, however, the general stock of cultural capital is declining. Other trends in the current information economy include a greater appreciation for art as a source of innovation than for art products as commodities in themselves; recognition of the ability of art to serve as a source for minority communities seeking a niche in the global economy; and an increase in efforts to quantify cultural capital. The problem of the decline of cultural capital should be a matter of concern to civil society as a whole. Resume: D'un point de vue economique, on a perc;:u !'art comme etant une ressource, une marchandise, un processus, un bien secondaire, une technologie, et un capital. D'un point de vue historique, le role le plus important de !'art pour Ia societe prise dans sa totalite a ete celui de producteur et d'entreposeur de capital culture!. Aujourd'hui, cependant, les reserves generales de ce capital culture! sont en baisse. D'autres tendances de l'economie de !'information actuelle sont: une plus grande appreciation de !'art comme source d'innovation que comme produit en tant que tel; Ia reconnaissance de Ia capacite de !'art de servir de ressource pour les communautes minoritaires recherchant un creneau dans l'economie globale; et une augmentation dans les efforts de quantifier le capital culture!. Ce probleme du declin dans le capital culture! est une question qui devrait concemer Ia societe civile dans sa totalite. Derrida, in his extended rumination over relationships among different types of changes taking place in Europe, The Other Heading (1992), weaves a complicated argument about the relationship between the decline of the state and the loss of cultural capital. This is the important next step in the developing conversation about types of cultural capital, the distinction between cultural Sandra Braman is a research professor at the Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 222B Armory Building, 505 East Armory Avenue, Champaign, IL 61820-6295. E-mail: [email protected] Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 21 (1996) 179-196