"Creative industries are becoming increasingly important components of modern post-industrial knowledge-based economies. Not only are they thought to account for higher than average growth and job creation, they are also vehicles of cultural identity that play an important role in fostering cultural diversity."
This shift in attention by government and economic development professionals, has led to the need for analytical tools -- data, statistics, maps and measures -- to assist in policy-making and assessing impact.
"Cultural mapping has become the favoured approach ... for government to study and understand their creative industry sectors before making policy decision. Mapping, which involves a comprehensive effort to identify all relevant cultural economic activities, organizations, employment and links in a given area ... has the added advantage that the actual mapping process itself can generate substantial awareness and foster collaboration across a wide range of creative stakeholders, building momentum that can them influence the policital sphere and encourage suitable public policy-making."