Collective and Individual Factors in the Development of Creative Ideas in Art: The Perspective of Film Directors

The study focuses on the question if and how it is possible to balance the freedom of developing artist’s individual creative idea and the societal demand for art defined in a concrete political context. The theoretical basis for the article is formed by research approaches grounded on sociology of creativity and social psychology. The object of the case study is film directors who had obtained funding for the production and dissemination of their films within the funding program ‘Latvian Films for Latvia’s Centenary’ (2016–2018). The experience of film directors (N 16) was examined by using in-depth interviews and transcriptions analysed in accordance with qualitative methodology. The study identified two contingent levels of creativity inspiration – the individual and the societal or collective level. The authors identify several development models of the film directors’ creative ideas, three of which are dominant: the independent outsider who stresses individual, seed-incident based creativity factors independent of the Latvian Centenary program; the independent idealist who stresses both individual and collective factors, independent of the Latvian Centenary program; the conforming patriot who stresses collective creativity factors that stem from the Latvian Centenary program. The view represented in the film directors’ interviews has in common the assumption that the Latvian Centenary call had a positive influence on the film ideas, allowing the development of the artistic vision and conceptualising the framework for the expression of their ideas. The directors emphasise that there was no intentional configuration of the film creative ideas by formally adjusting them to the demand, thus circumventing the barriers of social field’s gatekeepers. In many cases the idea had been developed long before the film idea call. Most directors admitted that the goal of the Centenary call appeared important to them both in terms of the state, and on the social and personal level.

Co‐Design and the Collective Creativity Processes in Care Systems and Places

This article examines the topic of participatory design processes (co‐design, co‐creativity, co‐creation, and co‐production) as tools to promote models of inclusion that benefit people experiencing marginality, and as means to solicit the public dimension of the spaces in which they live and where they have access to their health and welfare services. The topic is addressed through four case studies drawn from the experience of participatory action research aiming at social inclusion and cohesion through an approach based on design anthropology. Following Jones and VanPatter’s (2009) four design domains (DD), the projects discussed in this article are the following: participatory design of devices for people with multiple sclerosis (DD 1.0); participatory renovation of shelters for homeless people (DD 2.0); design and craft led lab aiming at social inclusion (DD 3.0); and innovation of public services for a city homeless population (DD 4.0). All these projects are driven by stakeholders’ demands for a transformation that improves the quality of users’ lives, the quality of caring services, and that they modify, temporarily or permanently, the venues where they take place. In order to support and facilitate this “desire for change,” the projects are based on wide participation and collaboration between many different stakeholders in every phase of their design processes. Methods, tools, and results will be analysed from the points of view of both users (beneficiaries and social operators/caregivers) and designers. Furthermore, the interaction between spaces, co‐design processes, and attendees will be investigated to determine how they contribute to turning those venues into citizenship environments, permeated with greater care and attention.

Features of collective creativity and definition of creative potential in modern organizations

The article provides a theoretical analysis of the problem of management of collective creativity in organizations. The relevance of identifying creative employees in companies and encouraging the manifestation of creative decisions among all staff, the importance of developing the creativity of the individuals and the group as a whole are substantiated. Studies that prove that creativity plays an critical role in the management of the organization and the company's competitiveness in the labor market are analyzed. The key concepts that underlie collective creativity are considered: creative decisions, creative abilities, innovative activity, favorable climate of the organization, etc. The specifics of creativity in connection with managerial and psychological aspects are revealed. There are two main categories of creativity research at the organizational level: the characteristics of members of the organization and the characteristics of the organization that promote and develop the creative abilities of employees. The characteristics of support for collective creativity in the organization are highlighted: strategy (strategies with an emphasis on innovation indicate the need for creativity and innovation in organizations), organizational culture (organizational culture that affects how employees value creativity, as a challenge to different subcultures to interact with each other to gain shared experience), methods (as the need for formal and informal methods to encourage interactions, methods that are developed in relevance to the specific needs and context of the organization), leadership (as support for creativity, where leaders could set goals for creativity and encourage employees to use the full potential of individual employees and collective creativity).

I Send You My Front-Line Greetings! The Speech Etiquette of Soldiers’ Letters

В статье на основе неопубликованных фронтовых писем и нескольких опубликованных сборников, содержащих около 500 текстов, рассматривается эпистолярий Великой Отечественной войны. Отмечается его неоднородность: существование в нем двух категорий писем в зависимости от социальной дифференциации адресантов и связей их с разными слоями национальной культуры. Основные различия при общей жанровой этикетности проявляются в степени использования готовых форм, стереотипности содержания и формы, а на речевом уровне - в степени формульности и клишированности. Различия касаются также круга используемых формул и характера их функционирования. Для писем людей книжной культуры характерен лаконизм в использовании клише; владея всем набором коллективно выработанных этикетных формул, адресант распоряжается ими свободно, выбирает одну в зависимости от контекста или не пользуется ею совсем. В корреспонденции солдат коллективно выработанные этикетные формы в структуре письма занимают бóльшее место. Расширение этикетной части происходит за счет приемов, характерных для коллективного творчества. Прозаический текст может дополняться эпистолярными стихами, распространенными в бытовой народной переписке. Выявлению стилевого разнообразия может способствовать изучение фронтовых писем в контексте всей массовой эпистолярной традиции, поскольку многие эпистолярные формулы сложились еще до войны или существовали уже в начале века. This article examines the epistolary heritage of the Great Patriotic War based on unpublished front-line letters and several published collections of them, in all about 500 texts. The letters are heterogeneous and may be divided into two categories, depending on the social status of the writers and their connections to different strata of national culture. The main differences in etiquette are manifested in the quantity of ready-made forms; stereotyped content; and at the speech level - in their degree of formality and use of clichés. The differences also relate to the range of formulas used and the way they function. In the letters by people of book culture, laconism in the use of clichés is characteristic; these writers are able to make use of the entire range of collectively developed etiquette formula and to dispose of them freely, depending on the context. In the correspondence of soldiers, collectively developed forms of etiquette occupy a larger place. Increased use of these forms is due to techniques characteristic of collective creativity. The prose text may be supplemented with epistolary verses common in everyday folk correspondence. Identifying stylistic diversity can aid the study of front-line letters in the context of the entire epistolary tradition insofar as many epistolary formulas were formed before the war or existed at the beginning of the century.

The creative component of fostering personal culture among prospective teachers by means of foreign-language education

In the paper special attention is paid to creativity and creative thinking development in the research of fostering personal culture among undergraduate pedagogical students by means of foreign-language education. Creativity is considered one of the essential principles of the civilization progress; creativization of education is one of the main aspects of the intellectualization of education that is associated with revealing personal creative traits and developing the capability to implement creative acts in the educational environment, social and professional spheres. The purpose of the paper is to analyze pedagogical conditions for developing emotional, creative and innovative potential of prospective teachers in various productive intellectual and creative activities using foreign language educational material. The methodological basis for identifying conditions for the development of creative thinking, cognitive, speech-thinking, communicative, regulatory, reflexive skills and the subject position of students for the development of personal intellectual culture of prospective teachers are the ontological, personal, environmental, activity approaches. The efficiency of creative tasks, creative technologies and methods of studying a foreign language is analyzed; these activities are used to train students to get knowledge and skills themselves in order to solve certain problems, to enrich the experience of practical application, to expose independence in creative activity and critical thinking, to foster the traits of a creative personality, to make a personally significant educational product of interaction and collective creativity, self-expression and self-realization of prospective teachers in the process of studying a foreign language at university.

Universal Models and Platforms in E-Learning

The study describes the effectiveness of digital technological solutions in education. Students, postgraduates, teachers, and medical business representatives have tested a comprehensive educational product based on the capabilities of learning management system (LMS) platforms. The online course was implemented on the e-learning platforms such as Moodle, Schoology, TalentLMS, Canvas LMS, Docebo, iSpringLearn's, Brightspace, Absorb LMS. The implementation of advanced e-learning models ensured the effectiveness of the educational process. The focus on the development of the personal potential of each educational process participant made it possible to create a personalized learning environment and evoke a sense of personal significance and importance. The focus on feedback has created a creative communication environment for the exchange of knowledge, thoughts and ideas satisfying participants' educational needs for self-expression and creativity. The collective creativity of the educational process participants made it possible to develop a high-quality corporate culture of the students involved, which became the basis for establishing business partnerships in the system of education, science, and business. Based on the observations, a universal model of an effective educational process in the digital age has been developed.