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The Politics of Creativity. A Conversation with Deborah Stevenson and Justin O’Connor

Understanding creativity, as it is used in policy contexts, demands an ontological and grammatical shift – an uncontrolled equivocation – to improvise on a concept introduced by the anthropologist Viveiros de Castro (2002). In his version, equivocation is structured, or under control. “It concerns the process involved in the translation of the ‘native’s’ practical and discursive concepts into the terms of the anthropologist’s...” (4-5). The art of the researcher is in making use of the equivocal switch. Inaccuracies and blunders can occur – if, for example, the researcher fails, through error or inexperience, to properly translate concepts, which anyway will always remain incommensurable to some degree. The aspect of control is part of the anthropologist’s art and duty as a researcher – that is – to understand the inevitability and opportunities of equivocation and to proceed ethically and responsibly in pursuit of knowledge. Imagine instead that a concept, such as creativity, is used haphazardly by researchers, policymakers, cultural workers, entrepreneurs, the media, and the lay public, with little acknowledgement that it can mean wildly different things to different people in different contexts, and therefore with different, and unanticipated outcomes. Further, that the slipperiness of the term may advantage some groups and individuals over others such as when it is used to promote market-driven cultural production (SVAŠEK/MEYER 2016; BHARUCHA 2010; GARNHAM 2005; LÖFGREN 2001), or to induce creative individuals to adapt, often at expense of their own economic stability, to rapid changes in technology and labor (SVAŠEK/MEYER 2016; LEACH 2007). I use the term ‘uncontrolled equivocation’ as a beginning point for thinking about creativity’s role in contemporary policy and politics, where there is little or no translation – meaning, little effort to structure compatibility around