Concept formation and conceptual change are classic, respectable topics in studies of cognition and learning. They are traditionally approached within the framework of what Greeno (Reference Greeno2012, p. 311) calls “formal concepts.” Perhaps because of this particular framework, the relationship between concept formation and creativity – or creation – has seldom been addressed. Prominent texts on concepts and concept formation (e.g., Carey, Reference Carey2009; Mareschal, Quinn, & Lea, Reference Mareschal, Quinn and Lea2010; Murphy, Reference Murphy2002) typically do not have the terms “creativity” or “creation” in their indices.

On the other hand, in his Explaining Creativity, Sawyer (Reference Sawyer2012) does take up concepts, specifically conceptual combination. “It’s creative to combine two concepts to make a single new one; for example, a ‘boomerang flu’ is a flu that goes away and then returns.” (Sawyer, Reference Sawyer2012, p. 116). Combining concepts may indeed be creative. However, in many cases, including that of “boomerang flu,” the combination seems mainly to serve the clarification and communication of an already created idea or concept to a wider audience. In this chapter, I will argue that the creative potential of concepts and concept formation is radically greater than that depicted by accounts of conceptual combination.

Collective concept formation in the wild may be seen as creation of new worlds, condensed or crystallized in a future-oriented concept. A new scientific concept proposed by researchers to capture and explain the essence of a phenomenon is future-oriented in that it calls for further elaboration, testing, extensions, instrumentations, and implementations as well as critiques (e.g., Nersessian, Reference Nersessian2012). A new type of a building or a new kind of work of art is also an example of a future-oriented concept. They may embody and crystallize future-oriented visions that generate imitations, variations, critiques, and extensions – whether or not the new type of building or the new kind of artwork has a name to begin with.

Collective concept formation in the wild is typically a long process in which the concept itself undergoes multiple transformations and partial stabilizations. This type of creation transcends the boundary between the mental and the material. The concept typically radiates outward, finds extensions and practical applications that stretch the boundaries of the concept and make it a constantly moving target.

In work activities, practitioners frequently become involved in the reshaping of their work and organizations. Significant transformations in work may be understood as formation and implementation of new functional concepts. In my studies of collective formation of culturally new functional concepts at work, I have observed an interesting phenomenon that is partially captured by the story quoted as motto at the beginning of this chapter, namely the story of Pippi Longstocking discovering the snirkels (Lindgren, Reference Lindgren2020). Pippi had a name (the snirkels) but did not know what it represented. In some cases, collective concept formation in the wild seems indeed to move with the name of the concept in the lead, as if in search of contents for the name. In other cases, concept formation seems to move practically in the opposite order, with the embodied and enacted novel pattern of activity in the lead, but not having a name for it. The name may be attached to this novel pattern of activity only much later. In practically all cases I have encountered, there is some sort of a gap or discrepancy between the textual definition and the practical enactment of the emerging new concept.

In this chapter, I will examine this curious discrepancy and the oddly opposite-looking directions of concept formation, with the aim of constructing an explanatory framework for further analyses of the dynamics of collective concept formation as creation. I will develop my argument with the help of data from three concept formation efforts, namely those that took place in the Herttoniemi Food Cooperative (introduced in Chapter 3), in the library of the University of Helsinki (discussed in Chapter 4), and in the home care services for the elderly in the city of Helsinki (discussed in Chapters 5 and 6).

In the next section, I will sketch a set of theoretical tools for examining concept formation as movement in space. I will then introduce the cases, paying particular attention to their developmental contradictions that demand and energize collective concept formation efforts. After that, I will examine the dynamics of concept formation in each case in turn. Finally, I will discuss the relationship between the cases as well as the implications of my analysis for our understanding of creativity in concept formation at work.

7.1 Concept Formation as Movement in Space

There are at least two important theories that treat concept formation as continuous movement. The first one is the dialectical theory of ascending from the abstract to the concrete (Davydov, Reference Davydov1990; Il’enkov, Reference Il’enkov1982), discussed in Chapters 3 and 5. The second one is the theory of cognitive trails formulated by Cussins (Reference Cussins1992, Reference Cussins1993), introduced in Chapter 2.

Davydov’s view of the process of theoretical generalization by means of ascending from the abstract to the concrete may be summarized with the help of Figure 7.1. In this view, theoretical concept formation is a multistep process in which an abstract germ cell is first constructed by means of transforming the initial situation experimentally and analytically, and then modeling the emerging idea. The process leads to a rich, continuously expanding living system, the conceptually mastered concrete. This process of ascending from the abstract to the concrete is also the core of expansive learning (Engeström, Reference Engeström2015).

Figure 7.1

The stepwise emergence of theoretical concepts as a result of ascending from the abstract to the concrete.

(Davydov, 1990)

Cussins’ theory of cognitive trails is a philosophical theory of embodied cognition where the basic metaphor is that of a person moving in a territory. People learn to move around in a territory by moving around in the territory. In so doing, they make cognitive trails. As explained in Chapter 2, concept formation progresses along two axes, namely stabilization and perspective-dependence or PD ratio. In Figure 7.2, the point of maximum generality is depicted with the help of an oval. This is where concepts emerge. Cussins depicts cognition as “appropriate spiraling” in the two-dimensional terrain depicted above in Figure 7.2. He calls this movement “virtuous representational activity.”

Figure 7.2

The emergence of concepts as a result of density and stabilization of cognitive trails.

(Cussins, 1992, p. 683)

Davydov’s theory regards concept formation primarily as a vertical process. It may be criticized for its lack of attention to the horizontal dimension of debate and hybridization between multiple perspectives and traditions (Engeström, Reference Engeström, Achtenhagen and John2003). On the other hand, Cussins’ theory says little about the quality of different types of concepts and about the specific actions or steps that need to be taken in order to create a theoretical concept that goes beyond mere description and classification of superficial features of the terrain. Both Davydov and Cussins pay little attention to the existence of historically earlier concepts and trails, made and defended by often powerful institutions and ideologies that have to be contested and sometimes forcefully rejected and reshaped in the process of creating a new, expansive concept.

However, brought together these two theories provide a powerful foundation for further work. Both Davydov and Cussins emphasize two characteristics that are crucial for the purposes of this chapter. First, both of these authors see concept formation as a lengthy, indeed practically unending, process of stepwise stabilization (and subsequent destabilization) of an emerging concept. Second, both Davydov and Cussins see concept formation as a process that transcends the divides between mental and material, between mind and body. For these authors, concept formation operates not only with symbols, words, and language, but also it is grounded in embodied action and artifact-mediated enactment in the material world.

These observations lead me to propose a general theoretical hypothesis about the creative dynamics of concept formation in the wild. According to this working hypothesis, concept formation in the wild may be regarded as movement in a space defined by means of two dimensions, namely the dimension of stabilization (the vertical dimension in Figure 7.3) and the dimension of representational modality (the horizontal dimension in Figure 7.3). The end points of the stabilization dimension are “emergent” and “well-defined.” The end points of the modality dimension are “enacted, embodied” and “verbal, textual.”

Figure 7.3

Concept formation in the wild as movement along two dimensions.

Any frozen sample of or moment in the process of collective concept formation may be placed in the appropriate quadrat of Figure 7.3. However, the true potential of the diagram should be found by using it to analyze and depict movement, progression of collective concept formation from one quadrat to another. I will try to accomplish this in the rest of this chapter.

7.2 The Three Cases and Their Contradictions

The first case is that of the Herttoniemi Food Cooperative, briefly presented in Chapter 3. Figure 7.4, based on our ethnographic fieldwork and historical interviews, presents a working hypothesis of the inner contradictions in the activity system of the board of the food cooperative.

Figure 7.4

Developmental contradictions in the activity system of the board of the food cooperative.

The two-headed lightning-shaped arrows in Figure 7.4 represent the key contradictions. The primary contradiction is located within the object: the board had to ensure the production and delivery of sufficient amounts of diverse produce of good quality, and it had to ensure that there were a sufficient number of members whose membership fees would cover the costs of production. This had proven very difficult, and the outcome had been a recurring shortage of money needed to pay the farmers’ salaries and other expenses.

This primary contradiction generated two secondary ones, namely between the object and the rules of balanced budget on the one hand, and between the object and the instruments (land, labor, money) on the other hand. The rule of balanced budget collided with the effort to provide the members with sufficient and diverse quality produce, even if the existing members’ fees would not cover the expenses. Similarly, the needs and expenses of land and labor power appeared to compete with the needs of the fee-paying members expecting quality produce in return for their fees.

The second case stems from a project conducted between 2009 and 2012 in the library of the University of Helsinki, discussed in Chapter 4. The digitization of information and the emergence of powerful web-based tools for information storing and searching led to a radical decrease in researchers’ physical visits to the library and also in their use of physical books and journals. A gap emerged between researchers and academic libraries. This contradictory situation is schematically depicted in Figure 7.5.

Figure 7.5

Developmental contradictions in the activity systems of the university library.

The disappearance of the librarians’ traditional object – researchers coming to the library to find books and journals – generated a dual contradiction. On the one hand, there was growing tension between the traditional instruments and the new object emerging as if out of the sight of librarians, or behind the gap in Figure 7.5. This tension could be condensed into the anxious question “What’s wrong with our services?” On the other hand, there was also a tension between the traditional division of labor and the newly emerging object, condensed in the questions “Who’s got the expertise to serve researchers? Are there enough of us?”

My third case stems from the Helsinki City municipal home care, discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. The tension between the need for safety and the craving for autonomy, or more concretely between a fear of falling and a desire for movement, is a persistent primary contradiction in the life activities of frail, elderly home care clients. Correspondingly, the primary contradiction in the activity of home care workers appears as tension between the desire to stick to the prescribed standard tasks of hygiene, nutrition, and medication and the desire to respond to the client’s needs in a more proactive way, activating the client by working with rather than doing chores for him or her. These primary contradictions are depicted within the objects of the respective activity systems in Figure 7.6. Put together, these contradictions can be seen stemming from the persistent institutional contradiction between the immediate cost efficiency and long-term effectiveness of home care.

Figure 7.6

Mobility-related developmental contradictions in the activity systems of the home care.

In Figure 7.6, the Mobility Agreement appears as a new instrument that aggravates the latent primary contradictions, generating secondary contradictions between the new instrument and old rules and division of labor in the two interacting activity systems. These secondary contradictions are marked with lightning-shaped double-headed arrows in Figure 7.6.

If and when these contradictions are expansively worked out and transcended, a new shared object will emerge between the two activities. This emerging object, depicted in the center of Figure 7.6, may be characterized as sustainable mobility. It differs in important ways from the dominant images of physical mobility in our culture. Instead of heroic feats of individual achievement and competition, sustainable mobility is oriented at modest but continuous, jointly agreed-on exercises embedded in daily home chores, carried out to a large extent together with the home care worker but also gradually more independently, and jointly monitored for results and modifications. As a potential shared object, sustainable mobility requires and generates a corresponding expansive concept of sustainable mobility, which will emerge as a new instrument in both activity systems.

I will now examine in some detail the concept formation process in each of the three cases, using Figure 7.3 as an explanatory framework.

7.3 The Food Cooperative Case: Concept Formation with Named Partial Solutions in the Lead

As I examined the food cooperative case in Chapter 3, I stated that although the germ cell (Figure 3.4) was used to ascend to the concrete, the actual name “expansive degrowth” was not explicitly formulated by the participants. In other words, the emergent concept was practically enacted but only partially named and stabilized. A closer look reveals that this was actually a rather intricate process.

Complex problems and challenging contradictions often generate partial solutions that gain in impact as they come together and reinforce one another. Expansive learning with its embedded iterations of double stimulation generates tangible solutions that contribute to the transformation of the collective activity struggling to resolve its contradictions. In the discussions of the board of the food cooperative, we identified five tangible solutions created by the participants for coping with the complex challenge of financial sustainability. Besides such tangible partial solutions, expansive learning typically leads to integrative conceptualizations aimed at explicating the expanded object in the making. Conceptualizations may be regarded as partial stabilizations of the newly emerging expanded object (Cussins, Reference Cussins1992).

The tangible solutions that were discussed most extensively in the twenty-seven board meetings of the food cooperative were Reducing the workforce and better organization of work in the field (347 times in twenty-one meetings) and Limiting the number of members (304 times in twenty-four meetings). Reducing the variety of species of plants and the field area was also discussed relatively often (177 times in fourteen meetings). Bringing forward the annual rhythm of the cooperative (seventy-four times in thirteen meetings) and Purchases from outside (fifty-eight times in six meetings) were discussed less frequently. A significant number of tangible solutions occurred in most of the meetings, that is, in nineteen meetings there were at least ten episodes where one or more tangible solutions were discussed. In two meetings, the number of episodes in which solutions were discussed was noticeably high: in meeting 18, tangible solutions were discussed in 200 episodes; in meeting 14, tangible solutions were discussed in 138 episodes.

Integrative conceptualizations of degrowth occurred thirty-five times in eight meetings. Complementary integrative conceptualizations of a network of cooperatives occurred six times in one meeting. As explained in Chapter 3, these two conceptualizations together became the germ cell concept of expansive degrowth.

In meeting 11 of the board of the food cooperative, a recurring problem was raised. The cooperative had not reached its membership target, which meant that it lacked the funding needed to carry out the plans for farming.

In the next speaking turn, a reason for this problematic situation was seen in the high membership turnover. A third of the members used to quit annually, confronting the cooperative with the difficult task of recruiting new members.

On the planning day (meeting 14) of the board, the participants decided that there was no need for the cooperative to grow anymore.

The envisioned solution offered a way out from a deadlock situation where there was a constant need to recruit new members to the cooperative, as summarized in Figure 7.4.

In meeting 18, a problem occurred. Calculations of a current budget showed that the fees from merely 200 members would not accrue enough income to cover the costs of the cooperative. It seemed that the cooperative was back in a deadlock. Recruiting more than 200 members was considered too difficult, but 200 members were too few to cover the costs of the farming. The solution of limiting the number of members was alone not sufficient for solving the persistent discrepancy between incomes and expenses. Nonetheless, this germ cell idea gave a new perspective on the functions of the cooperative: growing the number of new members every year would not be a sustainable practice and new ways to support the continuity of the cooperative had to be considered. Gradually, the other partial tangible solutions were interconnected around the germ cell idea and a sustainable mode of the activity began to take shape in practice.

In this case, one of the partial tangible solutions, Limiting the number of members, eventually emerged as the critical action at the core of the germ cell. This exemplifies a point made by Il’enkov: the germ cell abstraction exists along with other ones, “in itself as a particular alongside other isolated individua derived from it” (Il’enkov, Reference Shank and Abelson1977, p. 355) – in this case seemingly just as another partial tangible solution. Its exceptional generative potential is often noticed only later.Footnote ¹

We may now represent the concept formation process in the food cooperative with the help of the framework of Figure 7.3. The starting point is verbal and textual identification of partial tangible solutions, largely emergent in terms of their specific contents. These are marked with small arrows in Figure 7.7. One of these partial tangible solutions, Limiting the number of members, gains momentum and becomes the core of the new germ cell concept – represented by the dark arrow in Figure 7.7. The movement is from verbal and textual to actually enacted and embodied modality. One may assume that as the partial tangible solutions become organically connected to the germ cell, the novel concept may again move to verbal and textual modality.

Figure 7.7

Movement toward the concept of expansive degrowth in the food cooperative.

7.4 The Library Case: Concept Formation with the Name in the Lead

In the library case, the working hypothesis of our project was that research groups do in fact need new kinds of library services to master large and complex sets of data as well as the demands of information search, electronic publishing, evaluation of one’s own research, and visibility in the scientific community. Our preparatory analysis led us to assume that the present object of the library’s work with researchers was an individual researcher’s discrete request for publications or publication-related information. The needed new object would be a long-term partnership with a research group needing support in the management of data, publishing, and following the global flow of publications. This expanded new object would require a new division of labor, new competences, and a new organizational model for the library – a new concept was needed for the library services aimed at researchers.

We researchers suggested knotworking as the name of this new concept. “The notion of knot refers to rapidly pulsating, distributed and partially improvised orchestration of collaborative performance between otherwise loosely connected actors and activity systems.” (Engeström, Engeström, & Vähäaho, Reference Engeström, Engeström, Vähäaho, Chaiklin, Hedegaard and Jensen1999, p. 346; see also Engeström, Reference Engeström2008a, Reference Engeström2008b). In knotworking, services would be co-constructed and continuously reconfigured in flexibly changing collaborative formations or partnerships between librarians and research groups. In discussions of the future of libraries, a related concept has been suggested, namely “embedded librarianship” (Kvenild & Calkins, Reference Kvenild and Calkins2011; Shumaker, Reference Shumaker2012).

The notion of knotworking resembles to some extent the idea of “adhocracy” (Mintzberg, Reference Mintzberg1979; Toffler, Reference Toffler1970; see also Dolan, Reference Dolan2010), commonly defined as an organizational philosophy or style characterized by adaptive, creative, and integrative behavior which, in contrast to a bureaucratic style, is flexible and nonpermanent. However, the notion of knotworking is less romantic and more specific, defined by the characteristics of (a) pulsating movement of tying, untying, and retying together otherwise separate threads of activity and expertise needed for a task, typically between service providers and their key clients, (b) being not reducible to any specific individual or organizational entity as the center of control – the center does not hold; there is change in the locus of initiative from moment to moment, (c) requiring both rapid problem-driven improvisation and a shared long-term commitment, perspective, or plan, and (d) operating by means of negotiation and flexible agreements.

Key managers and staff members of the library quickly adopted the idea of knotworking as a starting point for the change effort, and the entire project was named “Knotworking in the Library.” Yet, besides a brief introduction to the idea at the beginning of the Change Laboratory process, we did not attempt to define or fix the exact contents of the concept. The name became somewhat like “snirkels.”

When “knotworking” was first introduced to the librarians, it was just an abstract idea. Later on, they adopted the concept as mediating means serving a practical agentive effort of their own. At the same time, the meaning of the concept was expanded. It was no more just a call for collaboration and coproduction with research groups. Such externally oriented effort became grounded on a new perspective of working closer to home, within the library organization. One might say that a somewhat idealistic notion of knotworking has been expanded downward, so that it has its feet on the ground. The elusive, skeletal name has begun to gather flesh and blood around it.

The story of Pippi Longstocking discovering snirkels is not unique. The search for an unknown or poorly grasped object which has a name but not a very clear shape is an important theme in the literature. Melville’s (Reference Melville1949) Moby Dick is a classic example. The white whale is mythical, yet also all too real and material. Carroll’s (Reference Carroll2011) The Hunting of the Snark is a humorous version of the theme. The national epic of Finnish folklore, the Kalevala, contains a core story of the search for mythical Sampo (see Engeström, Reference Engeström and Engeström2005b). In all these cases, the elusive object has a well-established name. To become a concept, the name cries for material, social, and discursive embodiment. The library case demonstrates that this can be a workable path also in the collective creation of a new concept for a work activity facing serious contradictions. Those who initially introduce the name just need to be aware that the concept will most likely take shape in ways that do not fully correspond to their initial expectations. Such deviations and shifts are exactly what is needed to make it a concrete, expanding concept rather than merely an administratively sanctioned shell.

The library case may now be examined in the framework of the two dimensions of movement depicted in Figure 7.3. The idea of knotworking initially suggested by the researchers and adopted by representatives of the library was an emergent verbal-textual notion. It was available as a preexisting abstract idea, explained in the talk of the researchers and in their publications. On the other hand, for the participants it was an emergent notion in that its general contours were not easily transferred and concretized in the context of practical work in the library. Thus, the initial notion of knotworking is placed in the lower right-hand quadrat in Figure 7.8.

Figure 7.8

Movement toward the concept of knotworking in the library.

The notion of knotworking was gradually concretized and reshaped by the library practitioners. The initially abstract textual notion became materially enacted and embodied in the practical initiatives of the practitioners and the director. In this process, the idea of knotworking began also to gain a sharper and more stable shape. The stabilization of the concept was in its fairly early stages when we concluded our project. The core idea of “knot” as the potential germ cell of the new concept was still mainly specified by means of examples rather than modeled as a general principle. Thus, the dark arrow in Figure 7.8 shows the concept moving toward the lower and, at least tendentially, also the upper left-hand quadrats of the diagram (see Sannino, Engeström, & Lahikainen, Reference Sannino, Engeström and Lahikainen2016).

7.5 The Home Care Case: Concept Formation with Practice in the Lead

In the home care case, our observations of encounters between nurses and clients led us to suggest a possible germ cell of a new concept of physical mobility of the elderly. In home care encounters, standing up from the chair (or sit-to-stand) emerges as a germ cell because in practice one has to get up to reach the upright position in order to move. It is foundational for any other kind of physical movement. In other words, it can be seen as the smallest and simplest initial unit of a complex totality; as something ubiquitous, so commonplace that it is often taken for granted and goes unnoticed; and as opening up a perspective for multiple applications, extensions, and future developments.

Leont’ev (Reference Leont’ev1978, p. 78) pointed out that “the realized activity is richer and truer than the consciousness that precedes it” (p. 78). The home care case shows that collective concept formation in the wild may well proceed with practical actions first, and the naming and textualization following only later.

The home care case may now be examined in the framework of the two dimensions of movement depicted in Figure 7.4. The starting point in this case was in enacted physical mobility exercises, centered around the crucial initial step of standing up from the chair. The new notion of mobility was initially very emergent and diffuse. This starting point is located in the lower left-hand quadrat in Figure 7.9.

Figure 7.9

The movement of the concept of sustainable mobility in home care.

As practitioners and researchers reflected on the experiences and evidence gained in these embodied practical encounters, standing up from the chair began to take shape as the initial abstraction or germ cell of the new concept. The articulation of this germ cell is depicted in Figure 7.9 with the help of the arrow moving from the lower left-hand quadrat into the upper left-hand quadrat of the diagram. The reaching of the arrow toward the upper right-hand quadrat expresses the ongoing attempts at naming and textually stabilizing the new concept.

7.6 Collective Concept Formation as Creation

Figures 7.7, 7.8, and 7.9 represent three patterns of movement in collective concept formation at work. In the first case, the formation of the concept of expansive degrowth in the food cooperative moved with named but emergent partial tangible solutions initially in the lead, then one of these solutions gaining the momentum of a germ cell. In the second case, the formation of the concept of knotworking in the library of the University of Helsinki moved with the name in the lead, toward concretization and expansion in practical actions. In the third case, the formation of the concept of sustainable mobility for the elderly in the Helsinki City municipal home care moved with practical embodied actions in the lead, toward a well-defined germ cell core and eventually also toward textual stabilization.

These patterns may indicate that the movement does not have to happen in a particular order or direction. It may be that the most important challenge of collective concept formation in the wild is to ensure in the long run movement across all the quadrats. This may eventually lead to something like a combination of a high PD ratio and a high degree of stabilization in Cussins’ (Reference Cussins1992, Reference Cussins1993) terminology (see Figure 7.3).

On the other hand, even if the starting point may be in any of the four quadrats of Figure 7.4, there may still be a dominant directionality in the process of concept formation. The three cases discussed in this chapter seem to move clockwise around the intersection of the two dimensions. This might be seen as corresponding to the basic spiral-like logic of ascending from the abstract to the concrete (Davydov, Reference Davydov1990), or expansive learning (Engeström, Reference Engeström2015).

In scholarly discussions of creativity, the distinction between the Big-C creativity of prominent individuals and the small-c everyday creativity has played an important role. Kaufman and Beghetto (Reference Kaufman and Beghetto2009) suggest that there are more variations than these two. Their notion of professional expertise as an intermediate “Pro-c” creativity is of particular interest. Unfortunately, these authors still subscribe to the linear notion of gradual individual transition from a novice to an expert (for a critique and an alternative perspective, see Engeström, Reference Engeström2018).

If we abandon the individual as privileged unit of analysis and redirect our analytical gaze to real transformations in work and organizations, we gain a very different angle on work-related creativity. Creativity appears as practitioners’ and their clients’ collective efforts and struggles to redefine the idea of their activities – to construct and implement qualitatively new concepts to guide and organize the work practice. This kind of creativity cannot be neatly located in a standard scale from Big C to small c, simply because the individualist unit of analysis of that very scale is inadequate. Collective concept formation at work is creation in the sense of forging the future, building new worlds of work while dwelling in those worlds.

In this chapter, I have argued that concept formation, collective learning, and creation may be regarded as aspects of one and the same process of expansive transformation of activities from the ground up, by practitioners and their clients and partners. This does not give us a license to ignore critical distinctions. What exactly is creative about concept formation within processes of expansive learning needs to be demonstrated by means of evidence on the cultural novelty and practical transformative power of the concept formed. Much work needs to be done on the sustainability, spread, and consequences of new functional concepts created in ways similar to the processes described above. In the next chapter, I tackle one aspect of these challenges, namely the temporally and socio-spatially radically distributed character of concept formation in the domain of efforts to eradicate homelessness.