Introduction

The introductory chapter presents the aim, content, and structure of the edited volume Creative Work: Conditions, Contexts and Practices. This multidisciplinary volume includes 18 chapters providing a wide range of studies in the creative and cultural industries, ranging from arts and literature to fashion, the digital games industry, ecological entrepreneurship, and wellbeing. The volume offers insights into several occupations and fields, but also into areas that generally are not considered part of this industry, but increasingly position themselves as creative and/or cultural. The introductory chapter highlights the ambiguous concept of creative work and provides an overview of this multidisciplinary field. It is followed by a presentation of the three parts of the volume: The first part, “Governing, organising and enabling”, addresses issues related to how creative work is managed, organised, and facilitated on different levels of society, by different types of actors. The second part, “Sites, spaces and performances”, addresses issues related to the emotional, embodied and physical environments of creative work and how it is performed and negotiated in various affective-material contexts. The third part, “Relational work, enterprising and precarity”, covers the working conditions and the inherent ambiguities of creative work, in employment as well as self-employment.