Entitled The Cultural Industries and Cultural Policy this special issues includes a variety of interesting and timely papers on the subject. The opening article by Hesmondhalgh and Pratt introduces the contributions and gives an overview of the problems and challenges facing cultural policy and cultural policy research with regard to the cultural industries.

Worth attention is the article by Garnham who reveals the policy intentions and consequences of the creative industries approach (see also the abstract in the New Acquisitions April 2005). Pratt's very interesting piece on governance offers a model for analysing public policies towards the cultural sector (see also the abstract in the New Acquisitions April 2005).

Of interest also is the paper on the development of a cultural industries strategy for St. Petersburg, Russia; the author finds that the British approach to cultural industries might have some real limitation in this context (see also the abstract in the New Acquisitions April 2005).

An online version is available for users within the Council of Europe. Please contact the information manager at culturedoc@coe.int for access modalities.