Creative Preservation: Reconsidering Creativity for Sustainability in Creative (Food) Industries

Symposium with papers.
The conventional notion of creativity as a generator of economic expansion has come under scrutiny in light of social and environmental challenges. Taking inspiration from the creative preservation framework (Verger et al., 2024), the symposium will explore practices of creativity that move beyond the traditional growth paradigm. By addressing the social, environmental, and personal impacts of creative actions, creative preservation serves as a future-oriented, ethical framework that fosters care and minimizes resource exploitation. Reconsidering creativity through the lens of creative preservation seems particularly promising for the food and gastronomy industries, an important sub-field of the creative industries (UNESCO, 2006). The food industry currently grapples with sustainability challenges tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 2 on zero hunger and SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production. In response, chefs are exploring ways to bridge traditional crafts with alternative practices, such as bricolage and low-tech innovation. To foster our understanding of how creative preservation in action might unfold, the symposium brings together an international group of scholars who focus on chefs as cultural entrepreneurs working at the forefront of not only challenging established practices on the micro level but also contributing to social change and the reconfiguration of their industry. From a Japanese chef who pushes the limits of tradition within his craft, to the World Central Kitchen, which demonstrates how creativity and strategic leadership can transform culinary expertise into a force for social good, to a French chef who innovates zero-waste solutions for sustainable food systems, the symposium offers rich food for thought on how alternative practices of creativity in food entrepreneurship can preserve, regenerate, or renew planetary resources without compromising innovation or disruptive talent.
Contributions: Traditioning in Japanese Fine Dining: Crafting Difference out of Repetition / Author: Yutaka Yamauchi (Kyoto University) ; Author: Daniel Hjorth (Copenhagen Business School) ; Uniquely Alike:Crafting Identities by Balancing Legacy and Signature Style in Sustainable Gastronomy / Author: Pilar Opazo ; Author: Barbara Slavich ; Chefs' Creativity for Regenerating Communities in Times of Crisis: World Central Kitchen / Author: Iben Sandal Stjerne (Copenhagen Business School) ; Social Imaginaries for Sustainable Futures: the Case of Zero Waste Food / Author: Sophie Michel (EM Strasbourg Business School) ; Author: Micki Eisenman (Hebrew University) ; Author: Mathilde Jost (University of Strasbourg) ; Author: Amelie Boutinot (University of Strasbourg).