Platforms for Creative Work

This chapter takes an interest in the world of platforms for creative and cultural work. Platforms for creative and cultural work started to become popular in the late 20th century, and their popularity has grown rapidly over the years. Taking its point of departure from these platforms, this chapter aims to shed light upon and discuss the work of the professionals who handle and manage these platforms. Through narratives of and about the work of these platform professionals, the chapter illustrates how creativity and creative work are encouraged and facilitated. The main contribution of the chapter is the identification and discussion of two core practices in platform professionals’ narratives of how they enable creativity and cultural work. We reflect upon how creativity is conceived of as a project requiring different kinds of administrative and material support, which the managers of these creative clusters, incubators, and makerspaces provide. Furthermore, we introduce the idea that platform professionals can be perceived as a contemporary guild whose actions, and use of language and terms illustrate the creative imperative of our time.