Policy Futures for the Digital Creative Economy. Proceedings of the University of Glasgow/University of Sydney Symposium, March 2023

This working paper reports on the ‘Policy Futures for the Digital Creative Economy’ international symposium held between 29-30 March 2023, a first step in the Partnership Collaboration being built between the University of Glasgow and the University of Sydney in our field. Hosted in the University’s Advanced Research Centre (The ARC) under the auspices of the ‘Creative Economy and Cultural Transformations’ theme, the symposium showcased cutting-edge research and in-depth regulatory dialogue. The first day was initiated by Professor Terry Flew’s (University of Sydney) keynote on the evolution of Australian cultural policy, while the second day revolved around the regulatory policy forum chaired by Professor Philip Schlesinger (University of Glasgow), bringing together a UK legislator, regulators from Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, and an EU academic perspective from Université Paris-Dauphine. Over the two days, the contributions and discussions ranged across algorithms, creativity and AI, creative labour, copyright, climate change, news, sports, and public service media, as well as new regulatory challenges and emerging responses. The symposium showed both how similar regulatory approaches between the UK and Australia enabled cooperation, and that research interests productively converged across disciplinary boundaries, offering a significant basis for further development of the partnership between Glasgow and Sydney.