Sociological Perspective of the Creative Society

Abstract

This chapter presents theoretical considerations using the social systems theory as proposed by Niklas Luhmann. Luhmann adapted “autopoietic systems,” a term coined by Chileans Humberto Maturana and Francisco Valera in the context of biology, to describe a particular network of production processes of communications and modern society characterized as functional differentiation, such as economy, law, science, politics, art, education, religion, mass media, medical care, and family. The autopoiesis of functional systems are carried out by way of a mechanism of code and program. Projecting this theory into the future, this chapter proposes additional theoretical understanding of future creative societies as having a co-creation system as a social functional system. In the Creative Society, the function of the co-creation system would supply creativity especially in a collaborative way, with a code of better/worse regarding quality. Its programs would be patterns in pattern languages where the symbolically generalized communication media would be also pattern languages. Thus, this chapter demonstrates the importance of pattern languages from a sociological point of view and concludes with an overview of social creative activities within the social systems theory and creative systems theory.