Cultural Crowdfunding Platforms in Latin America: From ‘Creative’ Discourse to Entrepreneurial Strategies

This chapter looks at the diffusion of crowdfunding platforms in Latin America and their implantation in the so-called ‘creative economy’. Articulating macro and micro-level analyses, this chapter investigates both the ideological discourse on ‘creativity’ that permeates public policy devoted to cultural crowdfunding platforms in Latin America and platform entrepreneurs’ response to it. The chapter asks the following questions: What kind of discourse on crowdfunding circulates in public, para-public institutions and in the industry? What is the impact of this discourse on national public policies promoting local ‘creative ecosystems’? How does it translate into national public policies towards local ‘creative’ ecosystems? More broadly, this chapter investigates how crowdfunding in Latin America may be considered an example of ongoing changes in the digital or creative industries and in public policy on creativity. Methodologically, the chapter is based on an analysis of public policy and industry reports, on 41 semi-structured interviews and participant observation with representatives from public institutions and platform entrepreneurs undertaken in 2016 in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as part of the ANR ‘Collab’ funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). Research was complemented with online interviews and report analysis in 2022.

Alix Bénistant, Jérémy Vachet. Cultural Crowdfunding Platforms in Latin America: From ‘Creative’ Discourse to Entrepreneurial Strategies. Philippe Bouquillion, Christine Ithurbide, Tristan Mattelart. Digital Platforms and the Global South. Reconfiguring Platforms Relations in the Cultural Industries, 1, Routledge, pp.91-108, 2023, 978-1-032-48991-9. ⟨10.4324/9781003391746-5⟩ - lien externe. ⟨hal-04322279⟩ - lien externe