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Dilemma: Professional Identity Work Among Tokyo-Based Designers

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Creative Context

Part of the book series: Creative Economy ((CRE))

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Abstract

Given the context of this volume, the chapter sets out to elucidate broader insights into the phenomenology of creative work—indeed the process of creativity—by applying a prism of professional identity work. Specifically, it empirically explores professional identity dilemmas from the vantage point of graphic and fashion designers based in Tokyo, Japan. Drawing on career- and work-narratives, it investigates the role of potentially competing work imperatives as well as market uncertainty. The two groups diverge in unexpected ways and support extant literature in others. Notably, both groups exhibit a distinctly commercial logic that informs ideas of success and failure as well as the professional identity construct itself.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Jakob Thestrup

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  1. Jakob Thestrup
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Correspondence to Jakob Thestrup .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Nissim Otmazgin

  2. Center for Society, Security and Peace, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Galilee, Israel

    Eyal Ben-Ari

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Thestrup, J. (2020). Dilemma: Professional Identity Work Among Tokyo-Based Designers. In: Otmazgin, N., Ben-Ari, E. (eds) Creative Context. Creative Economy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3056-2_6

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