Special Issue Introduction: Creativity and Creative Work in Contemporary Working Contexts

Abstract

Creativity within working contexts, including organisations and professional domains, is an object of inquiry for educators, managers and researchers. Their concerns vary and give rise to different questions, as a closer examination of different cases reveals. What, for instance, is understood to be the site and nature of creativity? What exactly is meant by ‘creative work’ or a ‘creative career’? What is assumed to operate as a constraint or obstacle to creative processes and creative working and, conversely, how are they seen to be nurtured? Such questions do not admit of easy answers because creativity in contemporary work contexts is a multifaceted phenomenon. As the articles in this special issue show, any attempt to investigate it must contend with the multiple definitions and associations of the creative.