Polyphonic Orchestration project (Poly-Orc)
Goal: Enhance knowledge on leadership of creative knowledge processes in different learning contexts. RQ: What characterises orchestration of creative knowledge process in different learning contexts?
Main content
POLYORCH develops a dynamic view of the creative knowledge processes as the polyphonic orchestration of voices or perspectives in the form of dialogues taking place within the person, between people, as well as at an organizational level. Going beyond static understandings of leading creativity in terms of personal traits or characteristics of products, this project focuses its attention on the dialogical nature of creating with and for others, within a socio-cultural context.
The project draws both on a sociocultural approach to creativity that considers as situated, culturally mediated action (a view advocated, among others, by Vygotsky, Sawyer, John-Steiner) and a dialogical account (reflected in the work of Bakhtin, Mead, and Rommetveit).
Further, it is qualitative with an extensive ethnographic fieldwork of knowledge co-construction in organizational and educational settings and high lightens the process characteristics of polyphonic orchestration, its outcomes, facilitators and obstacles.
A particular focus is placed on the role of leaders and facilitators within both groups and the organizational framework – and the way they foster dialogical relations between members and cultivate a sense of openness and possibility specific for creative knowledge work. The ethnographic fieldwork enables to further conceptualize the notion of polyphonic orchestration as a key marker of creativity and knowledge development in both professional and everyday settings and reflect on its dialogical implications.
Project leader: Ingunn Johanne Ness, University of Bergen, SLATE