URBAN RESIDENTSDiscovering the communicative ecology in inner-city apartment buildings Certain patterns of interaction between people point to networks as an adequate conceptual model to characterize some aspects of social relationships mediated or facilitated by information and communication technology. Wellman proposes a shift from groups to networks and describes the ambivalent nature inherent in an egocentric yet still well-connected portfolio of sociability with the term 'networked individualism'. In this paper, qualitative data from an action research study of social networks of residents in three inner-city apartment buildings in Australia are used to provide empirical grounding for the theoretical concept of networked individualism. However, this model focuses on network interaction rather than collective interaction. The authors propose 'communicative ecology' as a concept which integrates the three dimensions of 'online and offline', 'global and local' as well as 'collective and networked'. They present their research on three layers of interpretation (technical, social and discursive) to deliver a rich description of the communicative ecology they found, that is, the way residents negotiate membership, trust, privacy, reciprocity, permeability and social roles in person-to-person mediated and direct relationships. They find that residents seamlessly traverse between online and offline communication; local communication and interaction maintains a more prominent position than global or geographically dispersed communication; and residents follow a dual approach which allows them to switch between collective and networked interaction depending on purpose and context.

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PurposeAdvances in new media and web technology are making it easier for organizations and their employees, suppliers, customers and stakeholders to participate in the creation and management of content. It is therefore, useful to understand how a corporate communication strategy can leverage these trends. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the take‐up and use of new media in organizations, highlighting a current approach to implementation issues.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews and explores new media in organizations from three ecological layers: the social, discursive and technical, addressing who is communicating, the communication content and new media technology used.FindingsThe paper recommends a customer‐centered approach to implementing new media adoption in organizations using action research.Research limitations/implicationsAcademic literature is lagging behind the pace of technological change, and evaluation studies are limited.Originality/valueThe paper shows how new media and Web 2.0 services can be employed to work in tandem with conventional communication tools such as phone, fax and corporate intranets. Such a hybrid approach enables organizations to maintain and strengthen existing stakeholder relationships, but also reach out and build relationships with new stakeholders who were previously inaccessible or invisible.

PurposeThis paper sets out to describe and illustrate an emerging shift in the conceptualisation of value creation in business, namely the emergence of value ecology thinking.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines shifts in the understanding of value creation in key business, economic and innovation literature and focuses on developments in creative industries at the forefront of technology and innovation – film, TV, computer games, e‐business, mobile phones – to illustrate how business increasingly creates value through ecologies.FindingsThis paper identifies five important shifts in the conceptualization of value creation by highlighting a growing prevalence in the literature of several ecological metaphors used to explain business processes, namely: the shift from thinking about consumers to co‐creators of value; the shift from thinking about value chains to value networks; the shift from thinking about product value to network value; the shift from thinking about simple co‐operation or competition to complex co‐opetition; and the shift from thinking about individual firm strategy to strategy in relation to value ecologies.Originality/valueThis paper synthesizes emerging trends in the literature in relation to value creation and defines the concept of a value‐creating ecology. In the process it sheds light on the structure of next generation business systems.

This special issue explores the nuances of graduate creative work, the kinds of value that creative graduates add through work of various types, graduate employability issues for creative graduates, emerging and developing creative career identities and the implications for educators who are tasked with developing a capable creative workforce. Extant literature tends to characterise creative careers as either 'precarious' and insecure, or as the engine room of the creative economy. However, in actuality, the creative workforce is far more heterogeneous than either of these positions suggest, and creative careers are far more complex and diverse than previously thought. The task of creative educators is also much more challenging than previously supposed. In this introductory article, we commence by providing a brief overview of the creative labour debates, and the evidence for each position. We present the latest literature in this area that starts to speak to how diverse and complex the landscape of creative work actually is. We then introduce each of the articles in this special issue and indicate how they contribute to a more multi-faceted picture of creative activity, and the lives and career trajectories of graduates from creative degrees.