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Human Creativity and Invention: Exploring the stimuli of invention within the German Makers Community

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Skerra, Carsten (2018) Human Creativity and Invention: Exploring the stimuli of invention within the German Makers Community. DBA thesis, University of Gloucestershire.

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Abstract

Exploring the stimuli of invention within the German Makers Community ‘A piece of wood becomes, in the child’s mind, a wand. A building block becomes a mobile phone. The child plays at being the mother in the home corner,’ (Smidt, 2009, p. 105). The research on human creativity and the talent for the invention are long studied phenomena in the history of human evolution. Nowadays these two terminologies are often substituted by the notion of innovation. The work presented here, first of all, examines the question of how historically and culturally a distinction was drawn between invention and innovation. The work examines ancient German documents from the late eighteenth century, explores and defines a concept of the invention that is exempt from economic thought, and thus distinguishes the term invention from the form of innovation in use today, which was principally characterised by Joseph Alois Schumpeter in the 19th century in the age of Industrialisation. Therefore, the thesis is focusing on past, and contemporary research on the definitions of the invention to come up with a preconception for stimuli of invention. The work uses the process of the hermeneutic circle that moves from a precursory understanding of some parts to the whole the topic of human creativity and invention and a global understanding of the whole context back to an improved understanding of each part, i.e., the invention concept and the meaning of stimuli of invention. The invention concept has been developed further according to themes, in which historical and contemporary research findings on creativity, invention and innovation are incorporated. The invention concept will be placed according to time and structure, and deficiencies will be identified in present-day societal and cultural considerations because of the much expanded, economically shaped objectives. Also, a methodical approach will be used to define and apply the stimuli of invention, using the Systems Model of Creativity (SMoC) of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. While the systems model in its origin describes the information flow and the transformation of information between the three systems domain, field and the individual, the modification here includes the transactions of the three systems by implying factors that stimulate creativity and invention. New insights of contemporary creativity research then extend these number of stimuli of invention and the stimuli of invention are studied in the German Maker community. In general, the German Maker Community is about individuals that share their knowledge and ideas openly. Moreover, even if there is a focus on Makers living in Germany, these people are globally interconnected, and distribute and gather their knowledge from an engaged, global community supported by contemporary information technology. In addition, the context of the Maker community as an internationally recognised global movement for innovation and experimentation follows the thread to have potential people that give an insight about the stimuli motivating them to participate, contribute and share ideas, inventions and innovations in the Maker Movement, its communities, or its subcultural communities. The demarcation of the Maker Movement is still one of the open issues, therefore, the focus of the investigation was on people immersed in the ‘Community of Making’. As a result, the descriptions included in this thesis may illuminate the issues why people are deeply devoted to the invention in this community, even without remuneration or economic benefit or even of own cost. The research question, which factors facilitate inventions in the German Maker Community, is being answered. On the assumption that the German Maker Community belongs to the international Maker Movement, the study illustrates that the German Maker Community has partly other roots according to the cases investigated. Nevertheless, the objectives, practices and concerns have converged to the extent that a comparison between research results on the international Maker Movement and the German Maker Community can be drawn. Based on the comparison and the detailed investigation of distinctions, new insights into the socio-cultural structure of the Maker Community have been obtained, which also serve to explain how the Stimuli of Invention (SI) operate within the maker community. In the last section, the question of how German Makers can improve their skills to invent is discussed in more detail. On the interrelationships of the three systems Domain, Field and Individual in the Systems Model for Creativity (SMoC), additional themes are presented which deliver answers about the German Makers and possibly also for the international Maker Movement how these individuals continuously improve their skills to invent to the better for upcoming generations. ‘Ensure that you continue to offer children many opportunities to follow their passions and interests as the interaction with others, use cultural tools and solve problems,’ (Smidt, 2009, p. 116). The profound insight about learning and education in this context of the German Maker Community is that the relations and interactions described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Systems Model of Creativity (SMoC) and the opportunity to influence these interactions by the usage of Stimuli of Invention (SI) are accelerating the processes of learning and education. The Maker Community itself offers the play area for young people and young at heard adults to live and foster their curiosity, and stimulating young people and their adults to be inventive and innovative in the long run.

Item Type:

Thesis (DBA)

Thesis Advisors:

Thesis Advisor	Email	URL
Gear, Tony	agear@glos.ac.uk	UNSPECIFIED
Dathe, Tracy	tdathe@glos.ac.uk	https://www.glos.ac.uk/staff/profile/tracy-dathe/
Towers, Neil	ntowers@glos.ac.uk	https://www.glos.ac.uk/staff/profile/neil-towers/