How Can Individual Creativity Embrace Sustainability? Evidence from French Gastronomy

Mathilde Jost, Amélie Boutinot

Mathilde Jost is an Assistant Professor at HuManiS research center (University of Strasbourg, France). She holds a PhD in Management Science from the University of Strasbourg, France. Her research focuses on creativity management in creative industries, with a particular focus on gastronomy and electronic music. She is currently investigating issues regarding sustainability and inclusivity in the arts as well as alternative organisations. She teaches strategic management and organisation theory.
Amélie Boutinot is a Full Professor at HuManiS research center (EM Strasbourg Business School, University of Strasbourg, France). She holds a PhD in Management Science from Grenoble University, France. Her research focuses on trajectories and recognition in the creative industries. Her current interests revolve around the role(s) sustainable issues for creativity, recognition processes, and materiality. She teaches strategic management and creativity.

ABSTRACT
Our paper investigates how individual creativity can be infused by sustainable issues and therefore answers the call for a better understanding of the interactions between sustainability and individual creativity. We draw on a qualitative study of French gastronomy, a creative industry entrenched in sustainable challenges, to elaborate on how chefs incorporate environmental issues, specifically responsible production and consumption, into their creative activities. Our findings suggest three modalities for integrating sustainable issues into individual creativity through: internalization, addressing them as temporary but fruitful constraints and mediation. Based on these, we develop a model which can contribute to the literatures on individual creativity and sustainability by highlighting the importance of global and environmental factors, such as sustainability, to individual creativity and by expanding our views on how to incorporate such issues at the micro level of creativity.
KEYWORDS
Sustainability; individual creativity; French gastronomy; creative industries