Abstract
In studies on social psychology, the social identity theory (SIT) is considered closely bound to social creativity. The issue, though, is how social media and social networks have affected people's social identity and, by extension, social creativity. The digital revolution has transformed human social behavior, providing untold opportunities for people to become involved in collaborative activities. Accordingly, crowd-based applications offer a new way of collecting innovative ideas and solutions in many fields and from all types of people, not necessarily only professionals. Moreover, collective creativity is a topical subject in management and economic sciences, and new terms have been introduced to refer to creative-collaborative work in companies, such as creative industries or communities of innovation. This chapter will discuss the classic social psychology theories on social creativity and their effectiveness in the scenario of the digital transition.
TopIntroduction
Social creativity allows people to maintain or achieve a positive social identity through re-interpreting intergroup relations.
The advent of digital technologies and the spread of social networks have hugely affected the notion of social creativity and changed the perspective in which it is seen.
Recently and rather surprisingly, it has been argued that the concept of social creativity has received little scholarly attention since it was first put forward more than 40 years ago (van Bezouw, van Der Toorn, & Becker, 2021). In fact, however, this claim reflects the point of view of social psychologists, which differs in many respects from that of researchers in management, socio-economy, and social media. In these fields, in contrast, the interest of researchers in social creativity is increasing, and it has been connected to creative economy (Wilson, 2010), social capital (Fischer, Scharff, & Ye, 2004; Oussi & Chtourou, 2020; Westlund, Andersson, & Karlsson, 2014), communities of innovation, and collaborative creativity (Cohendet, Rao, Emilie, Sarazin, & Simon, 2021).
It has been observed that collaborative creativity is a concept that is often also used in the art world to refer to the act of bringing people together to explore emotions, themes, and characters, both positively and negatively. Online crowdsourced art is a form of collaborative creativity in the arts (Literat, 2012).
For social psychologists, social creativity allows people to maintain or achieve a positive social identity through re-interpreting intergroup relations. According to the APA dictionary, social creativity refers to:
[…] the tendency, described in social identity theory, to draw comparisons between the in-group and other groups in domains in which the in-group is more successful, and to avoid making any comparisons in areas in which other groups surpass the in-group (https://dictionary.apa.org/social-creativity).
Currently, for social economists and researchers in the fields of management and social media, it is crucial to develop new business practices tuned to the advantages presented by digital technologies. In this regard, creative digital collaboration assumes a relevant role (Gandini & Graham, 2017; Hall, 2020; Kim, Park, & Jang, 2019; Rennstich, 2019). By taking a collaborative approach using digital technologies, companies can generate new ideas and strategies for creative digital projects. Companies can utilize collaborative creativity to strengthen their innovation capability, for example, to restructure their organization (Dhillon & Gupta, 2015). In the last few years, communities of innovation and forms of collaborative creativity have emerged with the aim of organizing and leveraging collective creativity (Cohendet, Rao, Emilie, Sarazin, & Simon, 2021).
Social psychologists believe that social creativity deserves renewed attention since it could play a significant role in a range of important social phenomena, such as:
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Coping with an unsatisfactory social identity when intergroup relations are perceived to be stable.
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Promoting intergroup stability.
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Supporting intergroup stability.
In this regard, they argue the necessity of returning to the investigation of social identity, turning the spotlight on the societal changes that are being brought about by the digital revolution. In what ways, though, have digital technologies affected people’s social identity?
TopSocial Identity And Social Creativity
Since its formulation in the 1970s, Social Identity Theory (SIT) has become one of the most prominent theories in social psychology aimed at understanding intergroup relations and intergroup behaviors (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Capital: A term introduced into academic and policy debates in the 1990s. It represents a complex multidimensional concept, defined by the OECD as “networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups” ( OECD, 2001 , p. 41).
Crowdsourced Art: A form of art that aims to include people and transform passive audiences who are not usually a part of the art world into active creators. It also provides thousands of free (or cheap) working hours to artists, enabling them to realize projects of vast magnitude.
Postmodernism: A late 20th-century philosophical movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, and relativism.
Complementor: One company is a complementor of another company if it sells products or services that complement the products or services of the other, e.g., Microsoft and Intel are complementors.
Online Crowdsourced Art: A collective phenomenon understood as the practice of using the internet as a participatory platform to directly engage the public in the creation of visual, musical, literary, or dramatic artwork with the goal of showcasing the relationship between the collective imagination and the individual artistic sensibilities of its participants ( Literat, 2012 ).
Collective Memory: The shared pool of memories, knowledge, and information belonging to a particular social group, which is significantly associated with that group’s identity. It is a concept that is difficult to define owing to the sheer number of terms that can be found as synonyms, such as social memory, public memory, cultural memory, bodily memory, and historical consciousness.
Creative Economy: A collective term encompassing a wide range of activities across thirteen sectors, namely: advertising, architecture, the arts and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film, leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software, and television and radio ( Andres & Round, 2015 ). It is considered to be an important economic sector, especially in regard to SMEs.
Chandrel’s Theory: A theory developed by business history professor Alfred D. Chandler based on detailed empirical observation rather than formal model building. The theory provides a commentary on the rise of the large managerial corporation in which the importance of organizational innovation, managerial acumen, and business performance are emphasized.