Creative Work and Social Innovation: The Case of Innovating in an Open-Air Museum

The public management of urban space is an everyday practice that requires development. But how is creative work done in a public context? The idea of offering outdoor offices and outdoor conferences is being implemented in an open-air museum, owned by a middle-sized city in Sweden. This chapter focuses on their ambitions to be innovative, and the practices officials engage in, to innovate. The ethnographic material comprises interviews texts and observations. The study draws on theory on social innovation practice and on sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s concept resonance, forming an analysis of a municipality’s innovation practices as responses to change. The study finds that innovation work is presented as a more efficient use of existing resources, while it promises improved work health for the public. One conclusion is that innovation work requires communicating a culture of courage. The explored case shows the different ways in which outdoor offices and conferences are expected to create efficiency and health experiences as new potential values, proposed for citizens and visitors in the innovation practices. Doing social innovation, based on the case of outdoor offices and conferences and the concept of resonance, constitutes a response to new societal norms, such as the free choice of office workplace and place independence.