"Christiaan scrutinizes existing concepts of cultural and creative industries, as applied in public policies in African countries and largely inluenced by programmes of intergovernmental development agencies. He then searches for empirical evidence of their true value for human development. He looks into the role of the music industries in Ghana and Burkina Faso in particular and in doing so is able to draw conclusions on the potential and deicits in the existing development approaches for these areas. He considers the cultural industries as a source for diversity that goes beyond the economic debate on growth, and looks into possibilities to build more organic relations between existing concepts, policies and practices. This research will undoubtedly advance cultural policy thinking and debate in Europe on three levels: it gives an insight into the way a European debate resonates and has a meaning in a global perspective; it advances the empirical understanding of the cultural industries in West Africa and; it challenges the extent to which European action can and should inform progress of the cultural industries elsewhere." (Foreword, p.10)