ABSTRACT
The chapter outlines a social and symbolic work perspective on urban creativity. We propose urban creativity as the process by which creative communities’ production work and career work use material, discursive, relational, and sensory aspects of a city's unique heritage and identity. We illustrate this perspective with Berlin's electronic music scene. We describe how the creative production work and career work of DJs, visual artists, and curators use and interweave unique, site-specific cultural and aesthetic conditions and repertoires associated with the iconic sites and historical identity of Berlin's celebrated and mysterious (underground) nightlife. Our perspective advances a social constructionist way of thinking about cities’ aesthetic vibrancy and creative milieu. Thus, by situating creativity work in the practices by which creative communities inhabit their city, this paper informs the link between urban development and creative industries, which is at the heart of “Creative City” and “Creative Class“ discourses.
