Inciting Creativity in Asia

The advancement of creativity leads to entrepreneurship and innovation. It provides a growing contribution to longer term social and economic development and is increasingly the focus of national policy. As a result, creativity is an emerging research theme in developing countries in various social fields, such as tourism, heritage protection, new products and services development. Governments in Central and South-East Asia are working to create policies related to the creative economy and creative places, and academic research should play a central role in informing them. However, academics in South East and Central Asia struggle to influence policy and practice; they lack skills on publishing and are still constrained by a lack of intellectual freedom and freedom of speech, as a consequence of the (former) totalitarian regimes in the region. These two workshops will enable academics involved to develop their critical voice, publishing skills, and networking for research.