Ist Kreativit?t ein subjektives oder ein kollektives Ph?nomen? über eine ungekl?rte Frage in der Non-representational Theory und eine denkbare Antwort der Philosophie der symbolischen Formen

摘要

The micro-macro-problem of the social sciences is also present in humangeographies' discussions of creativity. Creativity could beconceptualized either as a capability of subjects or as emerging frominteraction processes. A direct consequence of this theoretical indecisionis an inconsistent notion of creativity in Nigel Thrifts'nonrepresentational theory (NRT) that is originally developed to valuatecreative praxis. The paper advances a proposal for conceptualizingcreativity in NRT by using the philosophy of symbolic forms established byErnst Cassirer. First, the paper develops a notion of individual creativitythat is implied in Cassirers' work on symbolic pregnance andsymbolic forms and via Bourdieus' interpretation of Cassireralso in the French sociologists' theory of incorporation.Second, the paper shows two possibilities to include the outlined notion ofindividual creativity in NRT. Creativity could be linked with NRT bymodifying Bourdieus' concept of incorporation as used toestablish a notion of nonrepresentational praxis. The second possibility ofincluding creativity is a connection of affect and experience, which leadsdirectly to the emergence of novelty.