Creativity in Context: Toward a Model of Embedded Cultural Practice in the Cluj Metropolitan Area

This article develops the concept of embedded creativity to examine how cultural expression is shaped by labour conditions, everyday involvement, and urban infrastructures in the Cluj Metropolitan Area. Drawing on three empirical studies, including a mixed-methods analysis of cultural labour during the COVID-19 pandemic, a representative survey of cultural participation and well-being, and a structural study of cultural environments, the article traces how creativity unfolds across diverse social contexts. It argues that creativity is a situated and relational practice conditioned by institutional asymmetries, affective routines, and infrastructural access. The article explores three interconnected dimensions: the precarious and stratified conditions of cultural labour; everyday cultural participation and its impact on subjective well-being; and the role of urban infrastructures in sustaining cultural commoning and aesthetic engagement. By combining theoretical debates with locally grounded empirical data, the article proposes embedded creativity as a lens to understand how cultural expression is sustained, constrained, and distributed, calling for a justice-oriented cultural policy that recognizes creativity as a collective, infrastructurally supported urban practice.