The Sociology of Creativity: Elements, Structures, and Audiences

Abstract

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 (structure, 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. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 46 is July 30, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Organizing Creativity for Innovation: Situated Practices and Process Perspectives

“…A Critical Reflection based on Observations from the Fashion Industry", Judith Nyfeler and Raimung Hasse take a critical view on the organized making of creativity, a process they call "creativization". Linking back to communicative approaches to creativity as a process of ascription (Koch et al, 2018;Godart et al, 2020), they suggest that creativity needs to be more clearly distinguished from innovation that is commonly the case. Whereas innovations need to be evaluated as improvements, creativity merely needs to be new and different from that which has already existed -as long as the difference comes as a surprise, which can be seen as the basis of value creation in the creative industries (Hutter, 2011).…”

“…This might be particularly salient in contexts where fashion plays a role -in the fashion industry itself, but also beyond it. Godart et al (2020) already argued that the contested and political nature of evaluation is more important to sociological research on creativity than the focus on "usefulness". The articles in this volume inspire us to think further about the multiple and possibly conflicting criteria for evaluating creativity.…”

Collective and Individual Factors in the Development of Creative Ideas in Art: The Perspective of Film Directors

“…These discussions explicate expressions of creativity by a broader societal context and cultural practices, but only in part do they uncover the specific traits of artistic creativity. An especially significant contribution to the development of sociology of creativity is the systematization of a prior scholarly work conducted by F. Godart, S. Seong and D. Phillips (Godart et al 2020). The scholars have identified three core assumptions that characterise the scholarly approaches in sociological analysis of creativity.…”

Making Creativity, Not Innovation. Lessons from the Field of Fashion1

“…Innovations need to be evaluated as improvements, whereas creativity merely needs to be new and differ from that which has already existed. But the difference must come as a surprise (F. Godart et al, 2020). In other words, both are novel and valuable -but innovations are considered useful, whereas creativity needs to be surprising .…”