Co-Creation As Anticipation of the Collision of Work Ethos and Play Ethos

The aim of the paper is to develop two diagnostic hypotheses: 1) that conditions of current society is changing due to a historic collision between work ethos and play ethos; and 2) that co-creation understood as a general approach to work and life is a way of anticipating these emerging conditions as co-creation combines the two ethos. The former constitutes the knowledge of the future, and the latter forms the basis of acting in the present for anticipating the future (Poli 2010, Hammershøj 2019).

First, the paper attempts to diagnose a historic displacement of work ethos, which has dominated over play ethos since the shift from gather-hunter society to agricultural society (Gray 2009). Thus, the paper attempts to identify signs of change in attitudes towards work that seems to subvert or question productivity, efficiency, goal-directedness, and status; signs, such as the phenomena of ‘Quiet Quitting’ and ‘The Great Resignation’ (Klotz 2023).

Second, the diagnostic concept of co-creation is developed as a general approach to work and life capable of coping with the consequences of the collision. In particular, the paper investigates co-creation as an approach to working life that combines work ethos and play ethos. Building on research into research into play and collective forms of art, the paper argues that children’s play is the original form of co-creation characterized by a play-attitude and ping-pong interaction (Hammershøj 2022).

Similarly, there is long tradition of co-creation in drama, film making, music and comic in forms of bands, ensembles etc. However, a movement is building, especially in the Danish theater and film making, on developing methods for tapping into the collective creativity of the crew. Drawing on this, co-creation is developed as an approach aiming at being creative and innovative together characterized by radical openness and playful ping-pong-interaction (Rill et al 2018).