Peter Fleming
(Queen Mary, University of London) 

 Christina Garsten
(Score, Stockholm University) 

 Axel Haunschild
(University of Trier) 

APROS 2009 Conference 

Times, they are a changing: Understanding organizations in complex,
emergent and uncertain environments  

December 6 – 9, 2009 
Monterrey, Mexico 

Stream 9  

Be Creative!
Organizing Work in the Knowledge Economy 

Not just artists are required to be creative workers nowadays. Rather, as Boltanski & Chiapello (2005) have shown in their analysis of “The New Spritit of Capitalism”, capitalism has been able to adopt artistic critiques of forms of work organization that make only limited use of workers’ abilities and creative potential. They demonstrate how this economic system increasingly enacts the vision of a cité par projets, promoting values like entrepreneurship, networking, creativity and flexibility instead of company careers and long-term commitment. As a consequence, ‘BE CREATIVE’ is the new imperative that displaces old imperatives such as ‘be productive!’, ‘be efficient!’, ‘be diligent!’ or ‘be obedient!’.

Call for Papers Steam 9 Be Creative! Organizing Work in the Knowledge Economy