Facilitating, envisioning and implementing sustainable development with creative approaches

The diversity and comprehensiveness of sustainable development (SD) require new perspectives, which go beyond existing mindsets and practice. Hence, there is a high demand for creative approaches in SD. Although the connection between creativity and SD has already been addressed in research and practice, there is still a need to study how creative approaches can facilitate SD across disciplines, organizations, communities and societies. This special issue therefore aims to create a discursive space among academics, professionals and doctoral students in areas such as engineering, arts, sociology, education and management to discuss the relations of diverse dimensions of SD and creativity. The special issue is linked to the ARTEM OCC (ARts TEchnology & Management, Organizational Creativity and Sustainability) conference series. It comprises 14 articles, representing theoretical and empirical (surveys and case studies) research on SD and creativity. The studies address methodological issues, education, business processes and supply chains as well as entrepreneurship. A broad variety of the 17 SD goals of the UN Agenda 2030 are addressed through creative approaches. Although the contributions refer to diverse understandings of creativity, representing process, methodological or resource based views, they demonstrate in their variety, that creativity is a collective issue, which is an immanent attitude of interacting people. Creativity therefore affects and facilitates sustainable development at various stages. It should not be reduced to bringing about new ideas for products, services or procedures. Moreover, the outcomes of this special issue show, that creativity can initialize the change of mindsets and general perspectives on SD. This special issue is a contribution to the ongoing discourse on how to enhance SD.