Creativity at Work: Cultural Production, Creativity and Constraints

This paper draws on extensive fieldwork in a wide range of creative industries
to argue that creativity itself is under-theorised, and should be considered as
both enabled and inhibited by numerous constraints guiding the choices made
by creative personnel during the course of their work. Six sets of constraints are
outlined in the context of different forms of cultural production: material,
temporal, spatial, social, representational and economic. It is argued that the
performance of creative work is similar in part to Turner’s concept of
‘communitas’, when an aura of individual creativity is passed to other
participants. This kind of liminal space is also found in creative industry ritual
events, which enable participants to communicate on an equal footing, and gain
knowledge and connections that they can then use at work in their normal
everyday lives. These in turn may have a long-term effect on cultural
production, creativity and constraints.