Social creativity: re‐qualifying the creative economy

Abstract

Despite a strong rhetoric of inclusion, both cultural and economic policies in the UK continue to reinforce the deep‐seated belief that creativity is something (only) talented and artistic individuals do. This individualistic conception of creativity extends to the framing of the creative industries and the creative economy, where creativity is treated as either a quasi‐commodity or the preserve of the so‐called ‘creative class’. This article suggests that at this time of economic, social and environmental ‘melt‐down’, there is a need to re‐claim creativity as a social phenomenon, often resulting from human interaction across boundaries (e.g. across nation states, professions, industries, organisations, disciplines, social and cultural groupings, methods, epistemologies and rationalities). The paper offers a bold agenda for re‐qualifying the creative economy according to this fundamentally social conception, including how this can be achieved through the embedding of a new discipline of social creativity.

Keywords:

• creative economy
• creative industries
• social creativity
• qualification

Notes

1. The very act of classifying a ‘creative class’ is of course divisive and potentially self‐limiting.

2. Value in the context of the creative economy can be understood on a variety of levels – economic, aesthetic, socio‐cultural, artistic and political. Although not mutually exclusive, these levels are often in tension with each other.

3. See also Bakhtin’s (1981, 1984, 1986) dialogical understanding of being and becoming.