The sociology of creativity : a sociological systems framework to identify and explain social mechanisms of creativity and innovative developments

Abstract

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.