Interactions between Economy and Culture. A Research Agenda Promoted at UNAM

Economy and culture are two of the great pillars that define the history of humanity. They both are a result of the interaction between individuals whose aim is for their communities and societies to develop subsistence, reproduction, and development capacities. The study of the connections between economy and culture is of great significance when we try to understand phenomena that play a central role in contemporary society. Creative and cultural industries, knowledge-intensive services, and the use of artificial intelligence are just some of the major topics in the modern economic world that cannot be fully understood without involving the cultural dimension. Likewise, the impact of heritage—both tangible and intangible—on the well-being and the development of nations cannot be fully understood without the appropriate economic valuation of cultural factors. Decisions taken about places where of workers and companies are, determine the urban systems of contemporary countries. Spatial organization within a city is increasingly influenced by the economic and cultural interactions of individuals. Therefore, it is very hard to find dissent among experts and those interested in economic and cultural topics regarding the importance of economy, culture, and other facts. 

One of UNAM’s substantive endeavors is the dissemination of culture, but it also conducts research on culture, especially at the research centers of the Humanities Head Office. UNAM today is developing and promoting a renewed agenda in the study of economy and culture, in which various experts in cultural topics are beginning to have a bigger connection and interaction with economists studying these phenomena. An example of this is the Fourth Ibero-American Seminar on Culture Economics (IV SIEC CDMX) that will be led by UNAM’s Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research (CRIM), and various other academic entities, from November 27th to 29th, 2024 (https://siec.crim.unam.mx/event/3/, see box). This is a great opportunity that UNAM offers to the interested community to showcase how research on economy and culture topics is being addressed in various Ibero-American countries from the perspective of cultural economics, and what type of studies are being carried out on this subject at UNAM and other universities in our country. This article provides an overview of the studies on Economy and Culture, particularly those conducted by UNAM, and discusses some of the works that will be presented at the IV SIEC CDMX.

At our university, the study of interactions between economy and culture in Mexico has been carried out significantly by various disciplinary perspectives in the humanities and social sciences realm. An example is UNAM’s Center for North American Research (CISAN), which has a permanent research seminar about creative and cultural industries and has conducted inter-institutional connections with universities near the border to analyze this phenomenon in the North American context. Another example is the study of cultural consumption, which has a long research trajectory in the country and has been originally promoted by anthropology, and which UNAM’s Cultural Dissemination Head Office has recently joined through the design of the 2020 National Survey on Cultural Habits and Consumption, that aims to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural sector. 

Paradoxically, in the reflection on economy and culture, Economics as a discipline has been largely absent, which was running against the international trend of the past three decades, when cultural economics emerged and became a recognized specialty field within economics. In recent years, several research projects have started at UNAM from the economic field, formally involving the cultural dimension in the studies. Experts from the urban and regional economic field at the graduate program in Economics at the Acatlán Faculty of Higher Studies and from the CRIM have been conducting research on this topic for several years. This raises great expectations for the multidisciplinary research on economy and culture to become a renewed agenda at UNAM, where economists can interact more vigorously with other well-established research groups in cultural studies, led by prominent researchers in anthropology, sociology, history, geography, and urban studies, among others. 

The organization of the IV SIEC CDMX is an expression of these changes, being the first time that renowned experts in economy and culture studies from Ibero-America will gather for this academic event. Around 200 proposals have been submitted to the seminar with approximately 120 confirmed presentations from 15 countries. Half of these presentations are research conducted in Mexico, and, nearly a third of them come from UNAM academics and graduate students as well, reflecting the growing interest in this topic within our university community. Research conducted in Mexico, particularly at UNAM, offers a rich multidisciplinary perspective from humanities and social sciences that enriches the understanding of the intense interactions between economy and culture. 

The thematic axes for the IV SIEC CDMX show how various phenomena and topics of interest in our current society are intertwined in the framework of economy and culture [see box].


To provide a better idea of the type of research that is being carried out, we comment below some of the works that will be presented in the IV SIEC CDMX, organized according to the event’s thematic axes. 

Creative and Cultural Industries
The topic of creative and cultural industries (CCI) is undoubtedly one of the most engaging in Latin America, particularly in Mexico. One of the motivations behind studying this subject in Mexico was to highlight the importance and contribution of the cultural sector to the country’s economy. Research being developed on this topic is very rich and transcends traditional descriptive studies aimed at measuring CCI’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). Research at UNAM and other institutions, like the University of Guadalajara, is partly driven by economists in the field of urban and regional economics, who analyze the sectoral and spatial interdependencies generated by CCI in urban economies, with a special focus on externalities and intangible investments. 

Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage 
Another important topic in Mexico is tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as the country has one of the richest collections in this regard and a significant tradition of anthropological research. Notable anthropologists from UNAM as Lourdes Arizpe have been key figures in cultural heritage studies in Mexico, contributing significantly to understanding the importance of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Simultaneously, in recent decades, international agencies such as UNESCO have promoted an international agenda by recognizing cultural heritage and its preservation as public goods. It is worth mentioning here that UNAM’s CRIM is home to the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Heritage and Cultural Diversity since 2003. This has also fostered interest in the economic valuation of public cultural goods, creating a discussion bridge between economics and cultural studies while highlighting the disciplinary tension existing between anthropologists and economists when the latter often analyze culture exclusively through economic principles and rational choice theory. This tension has been strong in Mexico, which we think explains in part the relative distance (and often resistance) of economists to conduct studies in the cultural field, especially concerning the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of our country. In contrast, as reflected in the academic program of the IV SIEC CDMX, economists from other Ibero-American regions have embraced a broad research agenda in these areas, focusing on the economic valuation of museums, archaeological sites, libraries, and festivals. 

Cultural Tourism
Cultural tourism is another topic of growing interest, particularly in Mexico, where the tourism sector contributes approximately 9 percent of the national GDP. Tourism is naturally a transversal presence in the interactions between economics and culture. Notably, the two leading indexed journals with the most articles on cultural economics in Ibero-America are Spanish magazines specialized in tourism, as will be addressed by one of the seminar’s presentations. 

Cultural Public Policies
Another topic generating significant interest is cultural public policies and their impact on economy and society. In the field of cultural economics, it is well known that the supply and demand for artistic and cultural goods are subject to numerous market problems, which initially encourages state intervention through various public action mechanisms such as subsidies, investments, planning, and legislation. This intervention is further justified when considering that arts and cultural heritage of a nation are public goods that generate social or collective benefits not reflected in the market. 

Management and Entrepreneurship
Creative workers and artists play a significant role in the intersection of economics and culture, particularly through topics related to management and entrepreneurship. These topics are common in Mexico and have driven discussions on cultural economics through forums and civil society organizations such as the GRECU (Reflection Group on Economics and Culture). 

Cultural Statistics
Cultural statistics are a strategic topic in studying the interactions between economy and culture. In Mexico, interest among economists in the cultural dimension has emerged recently, making the generation of cultural statistics crucial for building bridges between the two fields. For many years, anthropologists and cultural managers in Mexico have promoted cultural statistics to highlight the participation of the cultural sector in the economy. In this context, the National Institute of Statistical and Geographical Information (INEGI) has played a significant role through the creation and publication of Cuenta satélite de la cultura en México (Satellite Account of Culture in Mexico) and other cultural surveys, making it an important stakeholder for scholars in the cultural sector. In contrast, cultural indicators go beyond simple descriptions of cultural phenomena and are designed to provide information for analysis and decision-making; these kind of indicators have not been completely developed in Mexico. The IV SIEC CDMX offers an interesting perspective on how research is being conducted in the thematic area of cultural statistics and indicators. 

Emerging Topics
Among the emerging topics being discussed by the study of interactions between economy and culture, CCI are strongly linked to digital and information industries, as well as the internet. Today, there is intense discussion about the effects this new technological era is having on music, film, books, and television. 

Conclusion
The study of interactions between economy and culture is undoubtedly one of the opportunities we have at UNAM to rethink the development and well-being of our societies and regions. Academics and students from various trenches in the humanities and social sciences at our university are contributing to advance this research agenda. Creative workers, civil society groups, and Government play a central role in this process, having worked for many years to ensure that the cultural sector is considered a driver of economic growth in public policy.

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