‘Creativity is a skill that everyone has’: analysing creative workers’ self-presentations

Abstract

This paper discusses the research use of creative workers’ publicly available self-presentations such as documentaries or social media posts. In so doing it contributes to our understanding of how creative workers might fruitfully be researched. The paper, firstly, argues that self-presentations can provide valuable and rich insights into creative workers’ self-understanding, and thus can be of interest to creative industries researchers. Secondly, using the example of a film produced by Austrian product designers, the paper then demonstrates why researchers need to consider the processes through and contexts in which self-presentations are generated. The paper explains why self-presentations may not be treated in the same way as the first person accounts traditionally generated for social science research, and presents recommendations for how self-presentations might form parts of rigorous research designs.

Keywords:

• Creative workers
• creative work
• creative industries
• product design
• self-presentation

Notes

1 Below we use indicative verbatim quotes to illustrate how designer present collective self-portraits. All quotes are taken from the verbatim transcript of the film and were translated from Austrian into English by the authors.

2 Although all other quotes were originally in Austrian, this interviewee spoke the italicised words in English, mirroring the Floridian use of language.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Doris Ruth Eikhof

Dr Doris Ruth Eikhof is Deputy Director of the CAMEo Research Institute, and Associate Professor at the School of Business, University of Leicester. She researches careers, work, employment and diversity in the cultural economies and has published e.g. in Work, Employment & Society, Organization and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Katharina Chudzikowski

Dr Katharina Chudzikowski is Associate Professor in Organisational Studies at the School of Management, University of Bath. Her research focuses on aspects of work and careers in different contexts. She has published her work e.g. in Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, Human Relation, Journal of Vocational Behavior.