The sociology of creativity : a sociological systems framework to identify and explain Titulo social mechanisms of creativity and innovative developments Burns, Tom R. - Autor/a; Machado, Nora - Colaborador/a; Autor(es) Lisboa Lugar CIES-IUL Editorial/Editor 2014 Fecha CIES e-Working Paper no. 196 Colección Teoría de sistemas; Desarrollo; Innovaciones; Creatividad; Sociología; Psicología; Temas Portugal; Doc. de trabajo / Informes Tipo de documento "http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/Portugal/cies-iul/20161228025913/pdf_1378.pdf" URL Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Derivadas CC BY-NC-ND Licencia http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.es Segui buscando en la Red de Bibliotecas Virtuales de CLACSO http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) Conselho Latino-americano de Ciências Sociais (CLACSO) Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) www.clacso.edu.ar CIES e-Working Paper N.º 196/2014 The Sociology of Creativity: A Sociological Systems Framework to Identify and Explain Social Mechanisms of Creativity and Innovative Developments Tom R. Burns In collaboration with Nora Machado CIES e-Working Papers (ISSN 1647-0893) Av. das Forças Armadas, Edifício ISCTE, 1649-026 LISBOA, PORTUGAL, [email protected] Tom R. Burns (associated with Sociology at Uppsala University, Sweden and Lisbon University Institute, Portugal) has published internationally more than 15 books and 150 articles in substantive areas of governance and politics, environment and technology, administration and policymaking; also he has contributed to institutional theory, sociological game theory, theories of socio-cultural evolution and social systems. He has been a Jean Monnet Visiting Professor, European University Institute, Florence (2002), Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (1992, 1998) and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (1985) and a visiting scholar at a number of leading universities in Europe and the USA. Nora I. Machado des Johansson is a researcher associated with the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology CIES, at the Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE), and to the Department of Sociology, University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Machado´s main areas of research are sociology of culture, social cognition and organization. Her studies also concern the sociology of ethics. Among her publications are articles in Public Administration: An International Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Sociology, Social Science and Medicine, Death Studies, Human Systems Management and a book Using the Bodies of the Dead: Legal, Ethical and Organizational Dimensions of Organ Transplantation. Ashgate Publishers, England 1998. She is now currently completing a book about normative and cultural changes in end-of-life processes. Preliminary Abridged Draft (February 5, 2014); Revised (December 17, 2014) We are grateful to Ugo Corte for his many suggestions and inputs into this manuscript. Also, earlier related collaboration with Tom Baumgartner, Marcus Carson, Jerry Ellig, Peter Hall, Ilan Kelman, and Alison Woodward has played a significant role in the development of the sociology of creativity. 1 Abstract Creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and sustainability. This manuscript 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 development with respect to diverse empirical bases. The approach shares with key psychological theory approaches in the area consideration of key concepts such as “persons”, “processes”, “products”, and “places “but extends these to include additional factors such as social structures and resources, social powers, selection mechanisms (acceptance or rejection), and institutionalization. Moreover, the complex of factors identified and analyzed are specified in this article in sociological terms. The resulting model enables one to address and answer key questions relating to creative actions and innovative developments such as “who” is involved, “why” are they driving these activities, “what” are they doing or trying to do concretely, “how”, “where”, and “when” in diverse instances/illustrations which illuminate human creativity. The general model enables us to distinguish between and analyze processes of creative origination/formation, on the one hand, and processes of institutional acceptance and realization, on the other hand. Innovation in these distinct phases is distinguished analytically. It formulates a phase structure model in which the phases of origination and innovation generally and the phases of acceptance and institutionalization are identified and analyzed. Finally, the work introduces and applies key concepts such as rules and rule regimes -- norms, roles, institutions, and cultural formations -- in general, social structure. Moreover, it identifies socially based creativity production functions and particular cognitive and action mechanisms as features of rule regimes that generate innovations. Applications and illustrations in the article are diverse ranging from, for instance: (i) “the lone coyote” who exercises creativity based on absorbing a field of knowledge, concepts, challenges, problems, solution strategies, creativity production functions or programs (and who is likely to be in contact with libraries, relevant journals and may be directly or indirectly in contact with a network of others); (ii) groups in their particular fields operating greenhouse driving problem-solving and creative activities – both self-organizing groups as well as groups established by external powers (whether a private company, a government, or a non-government organization or movement); (iii) or entire societies undergoing transformations and radical development as in the industrial and later revolutions. The article introduces and applies a model stressing the socio-cultural and political embeddedness of agents, either as individuals or groups, in their creative activities and innovative productions. The agents are socialized agents, carriers of socio-cultural knowledge, including some of the knowledge essential to engage in creative processes in a particular domain or field. In their creativity, agents 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 through the institutions and networks of which they are a part. As social agents, they are carriers of constructed values and motives and culturally established ideas, strategies, and practices (e.g., “a cultural tool kit.”) Their creative actions are social actions, given meanings in cultural and institutional terms in the domains or fields in which they engage in their activities. Power considerations are part and parcel of the analyses, for instance the role of the state as well as 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 rather than largely psychological or biological. Key words: Creativity, innovative development, system theories, sociology, psychology, field, agency, rule regime, creative production function, context of creativity, context of receptivity 2 I. BACKGROUND This work has three purposes: (1) to argue that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; this implies that sociology can contribute to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to apply sociological systems theory’s (in particular, Actor-Systems-Dynamics, ASD) in conceptualizing multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and mechanisms in describing and explaining creativity;1 (3) to enable linking through the application of the systems approach in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain different forms and mechanisms of creativity and innovative development. We introduce a model taking into account the social embeddedness of agents, either as individuals or groups, in their creative and innovative productions (Granovetter, 1985). The agents are socialized agents, carriers of socio-cultural knowledge, including some of the knowledge potentially useful in concrete innovative/transformative processes. In their creative activities, they manipulate symbols, rules, technologies, and materials that are socially