| Abstract: | Creativity, flexibility and authenticity have become important virtues in modern industrialized countries. Employers demand from their employees continuously more autonomy and initiative. Likewise many employees want to gain self-realization through their work. Taking advertising as a case in point, the article sketches the outlines of a new creative working ethos. Prototypes of this ethos are the experts in the culture and media industries. These occupational fields are very much more than others by current economic changes resulting in insecure career prospects, competition and the ?project logics“ of employment. The analysis shows what kind of identity this ethos offers, how it meets the new economic requirements and how it is anchored in the institutional settings of the occupational group. Finally, the article discusses the question how this type of creative expert is fabricated in the tension between professionalism and market. |
