Social models of creativity: Integrating the DIFI and FBS frameworks to study creative design (original) (raw)
Related papers
The three-part article of which this one is Part III is predicated on the principle that creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective to adaptation and sustainability. This work on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; (3) to illustrate a sociological systems theory's (Actor-Systems-Dynamics) conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and mechanisms – and their role in creativity and innovative developments in diverse empirical cases. Part I of this article introduced and applied a general model of innovation and creative development stressing the socio-cultural and political embeddedness of agents, either as individuals or groups, in their creative activities and innovative productions. Part II investigated the " context of innovation and discovery " considering a wide range of applications and illustrations. This 3rd segment, Part III, specifies and analyzes the " context of receptivity and institutionalization " where innovations and creative developments are socially accepted, legitimized, and institutionalized or rejected and suppressed. A number of cases and illustrations are considered. Power considerations are part and parcel of these analyses, for instance the role of the state as well as powerful private interests and social movements in facilitating and/or constraining innovations and creative developments in society. In the perspective presented here, generally speaking, creativity can be consistently and systematically considered to a great extent as social, cultural, institutional and material as much as psychological or biological.
Creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and sustainability. This first part of a three part article on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a sociological systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; and (3) to illustrate a sociological systems theory's conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and their role in creativity and innovative development in diverse empirical instances. The article introduces and applies a model stressing the social embeddedness of innovative agents and entrepreneurs, either as individuals or groups, as they manipulate symbols, rules, technologies, and materials that are socially derived and developed. Their motivation for doing what they do derives in part from their social roles and positions, in part in response to the incentives and opportunities – many socially constructed – shaping their interaction situations and domains. Their capabilities including their social powers derive from the culturally and institutional frameworks in which they are embedded. In carrying out their actions, agents mobilize resources including technologies through the institutions and networks in which they participate. Following this theoretical part, Parts II and III focus on the concrete conditions and mechanisms characteristic of the " context of innovation " and the " context of receptivity and institutionalization " , respectively.
Human Systems Management, 2015
Creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and sustainability. This first part of a three part article on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a sociological systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; and (3) to illustrate a sociological systems theory’s conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and their role in creativity and innovative development in diverse empirical instances. The article introduces and applies a model stressing the social embeddedness of innovative agents and entrepreneurs, either as individua...
Beyond binary choices: Integrating individual and social creativity
International Journal of …, 2005
The power of the unaided individual mind is highly overrated. Although society often thinks of creative individuals as working in isolation, intelligence and creativity result in large part from interaction and collaboration with other individuals. Much human creativity is social, arising from activities that take place in a context in which interaction with other people and the artifacts that embody collective knowledge are essential contributors. This paper examines: (1) how individual and social creativity can be integrated by means of proper collaboration models and tools supporting distributed cognition; (2) how the creation of shareable externalizations (''boundary objects'') and the adoption of evolutionary process models in the construction of meta-design environments can enhance creativity and support spontaneous design activities (''unselfconscious cultures of design''); and (3) how a new design competence is emerging-one that requires passage from individual creative actions to synergetic activities, from the reflective practitioner to reflective communities and from given tasks to personally meaningful activities. The paper offers examples in the context of collaborative design and art practice, including urban planning, interactive art and open source. In the effort to draw a viable path ''beyond binary choices'', the paper points out some ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhcs (E. Giaccardi). major challenges for the next generation of socio-technical environments to further increase the integration of individual and social creativity. r
Creativity and Creative Communities
The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education, 2018
Although creativity possesses a number of different definitions, they all share a common core. Creativity is seen as the adaptive disposition of living creatures that enables them to confront novelty and change, or even pursue and instigate novelty and change, in order to overcome or circumvent obstacles and contingencies. 1 Effectively, creativity may also spontaneously be at play in situations where neither an obstacle nor a glitch are present, in which case it contributes to the elaboration of creative and inventive action, or acts as the catalyst for novelty and change. Creativity is both an individual and a collective disposition. Therefore, the process of self-organization, or more specifically auto-eco-organization (Morin 1985), is what generates the novelty associated with collective creative systems. Humans do not view all existing species as equally creative despite each one's ability to adjust to hostile environments. Analogously, within a single species, humans included, all subjects and groups are not deemed equally creative. Nonetheless, groups and subjects considered uncreative or only faintly creative can emerge as creative when changes in their environment act as imperatives to seek out new solutions.
The Sociology of Creativity: Elements, Structures, and Audiences
Annual Review of Sociology, 2020
This review integrates diverse characterizations of creativity from a sociological perspective with the goal of reinvigorating discussion of the sociology of creativity. We start by exploring relevant works of classical social theory to uncover key assumptions and principles, which are used as a theoretical basis for our proposed definition of creativity: an intentional configuration of cultural and material elements that is unexpected for a given audience. Our argument is enriched by locating creativity vis-à-vis related concepts-such as originality, knowledge, innovation, atypicality, and consecration-and across neighboring disciplines. Underlying the discussion are antecedents (struc-ture, institutions, and context) and consequences (audiences, perception, and evaluation), which are treated separately. We end our review by speculating on ways in which sociologists can take the discussion of creativity forward.