Philosophy of Digital Man and Digital Society - 2024
Creative Economy as an Economy Based on New Values of Frugality, Inclusivity, and Balance
Praxeological Foundations of the Philosophy of the Digital Society and the Digital Human
To substantiate the notion of the creative economy as one grounded in the new values of frugality, inclusivity, and balance, we shall highlight lean production as a condition for the creation of genuine long-term economic value and apply the principles and methods of Agile management, which are flexible and promote the adaptation of all stakeholders involved in this process. The core of the lean production concept is the reduction of order fulfillment time and the enhancement of productivity levels. The philosophy of the creative economy, emerging as a discipline and a new scientific direction, is shaped by a new conceptual and categorical apparatus alongside novel research methods. The aim of this study is to analyze the philosophy of the creative economy, which is rooted in philosophical principles that demand a new economic logic, new Enlightenment 2.0 principles, and the exponential technologies of Big Data, all of which are directed at deepening our understanding of the role of the creative sector and the activation of human capital.
An example of the creative economy is the implementation of lean production in enterprises, which has allowed for nearly a twofold increase in productivity, a reduction in production areas, and a decrease in inventory levels, all achieved with minimal financial losses. The results of the analysis and application of Agile management principles and methods have demonstrated effective managerial mechanisms that have facilitated the successful adoption of lean production, which is now recognized globally.
We endeavor to illustrate that the creative-innovative potential of lean production development serves as a powerful instrument of the creative economy, centered on the creation of value through lean production and the mitigation of costs within enterprises. This concept of the creative economy, based on new values of frugality, inclusivity, and balance, harnesses the creative-innovative potential of production, disseminating it among employees, distributors, and suppliers. It is crucial to emphasize that many lean tools present a genuine challenge to enterprise managers, who are essential for refining product development, managing supply networks, optimizing production operations, and fostering customer relations, thereby evidencing the implementation of new values inherent in the creative economy.
The issues surrounding lean production as a facet of the creative economy have intrigued scholars for decades. The first system—mass production—was birthed by General Motors in the 1920s, enabling Ford to emerge as the largest industrial enterprise on the planet. Subsequently, companies across virtually every industry worldwide—among them Ford and General Electric—borrowed this system and utilized it for nearly 75 years.
The second business model—lean production—was introduced by Toyota during the two decades following World War II and has since permeated every corner of the globe. These processes are documented in the works of authors James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Ross, notably in "The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production—Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars," and in "Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation."
We contend that the lean production system, as a factor of frugal production, is rooted in Agile management—flexible, adaptive, and leveraging people and teams, focused on cutting-edge software and the innovative potential of organizations, which lies at the heart of the creative economy. Lean production, as an economy founded on new values of frugality, inclusivity, and balance, encompasses the utilization of Agile management and quality management principles, as the principles of lean production have enabled leading companies in the United States, Germany, and Japan to nearly double their productivity, accelerate their time to market, reduce production areas by half, and minimize inventory levels with virtually no financial outlay. The theory of lean production is universal and capable of encompassing both high-tech firms and traditional enterprises, as well as the service sector.
One notable competitor is Lean Software Development, which transfers the ideas of lean production into the realm of software development. The seven principles of lean production are articulated in the work of Popendieck (2009) and are based on the 14 principles of the Toyota Way (the management philosophy of Toyota) and the management principles of W. Edwards Deming. There is much common ground between the worlds of Agile management and Lean; thus, they often operate in concert, with the same experts engaging in both fields, sharing common advocates, and their development being highlighted in the same blogs, journals, and television shows.
From a managerial perspective, Lean Software Development has made significant contributions to the evolution of the Agile world, emphasizing the reduction of non-productive expenditures and the optimization of the system as a whole. Although lean software development methods emerged a few years after Agile, they have reached parity in terms of the number of consultants, coaches, professional consortiums, and conferences held.
A significant role in this process of implementing the creativity of the economy has been played by the "Software Craftsmanship Movement," whose foundational document is the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship. This manifesto simultaneously expands the creative Agile philosophy. Proponents of this movement regard software developers as creative philosophers and engineers who formulate methods, principles, and approaches of the creative economy.
For us, analyzing this movement is beneficial because it arose alongside lean and agile approaches and methods. The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship articulates that software development masters strive to elevate professional craftsmanship by implementing creative methods.
Thanks to the methods of the creative economy, every individual should raise their professional standards, grounded in the following principles:
- Not merely a working product, but a well-crafted one.
- Not just a reaction to changes, but a constant addition of value.
- Not merely interaction between individuals, but a community of professionals.
- Not only collaboration with the customer, but also productive partnership.
An exceptionally effective methodology utilized in realizing the creative-innovative potential of lean production as a factor of frugal production is the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). Its development has been underway since 1987 by the Software Engineering Institute—a research center based at Carnegie Mellon University.
The project began with the creation of a protocol for optimizing software development processes but gradually evolved into a more abstract model now applied for optimizing processes in various other fields. The model comprises five levels of process maturity across 22 process areas and aims to generate recommendations for their optimization. However, this model merely indicates where process optimization is feasible and provides recommendations for specific means of achieving it.
Due to the adoption of creative agile methods, some Agile advocates believe that despite its comprehensive nature (the documentation spans hundreds of pages), it remains compatible with agile approaches, as the latter complement it by offering recommendations for specific means of process optimization.
Nonetheless, this development has not stagnated; it has been augmented by another methodological document, the "Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK), published and maintained by the Project Management Institute, which offers project managers concrete recommendations for managing projects.
The last important direction in this context is the Unified Process and its improved version, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), which was developed in 1997 by Rational Software (now part of IBM).
Herein lies a description of standardized methods for creative project management, which should adapt to specific projects. Concurrently, there must be a development of organizational (business) needs for planning, predictability, and documentation of actions, utilizing managerial control, organizational change management, and engineering talents. To fully capitalize on the advantages of an Agile economy, leadership must address the question of what future awaits managers, as the implementation of these approaches has begun to encounter obstacles.
As a result of these emerging issues, the "Declaration of Interdependence" was formulated, founded on the use of flexible and adaptive approaches to addressing economic problems and values. At its core lies the creative-innovative potential and the ability of individuals to engage in creativity and innovation. The outcome of this implementation is the individual recognized as the direct source of values, enhancing efficiency through collective responsibility for team performance, selecting strategies suited to specific circumstances.
The innovative-digital potential of the creative economy serves as a marker and megatrend, provoked by profound transformations and shifts in all spheres of human activity, impacting the long-term sustainable development of society. The new paradigm of the creative economy is currently the most robust and significant, capable of guiding countries out of crisis and back onto the path of sustainable digital development. To achieve this, strategies and priorities for innovative digital development encompassing large-scale digital sectors must be formulated.
The creative digital sector encompasses economics, management, governance, informatics, programming, and the intensive development of information and communication technologies (ICT). It anticipates new technological breakthroughs that will foster sustainable development in the digital domain. Only a digital innovative economy can create new conditions for breakthroughs in advanced technologies and facilitate economic innovative development, necessitating at least innovative technological shifts.
Thus, considering the crisis-driven evolution of the modern technological world, the philosophy of the creative economy is brought to the forefront in highly developed countries. This philosophy represents a confluence of ideas, principles, concepts, and theories regarding breakthrough information and communication technologies that influence economic development, substantially altering everything and enhancing the chances of economic success. Its development employs digital tools (means, networks, big data, data mining) to improve the digital landscape and format of the economy, thereby enabling a country to emerge as a new leader, transforming all processes and altering modes of operation and interaction.
At the foundation of the creative economy lie innovations such as robotics, artificial intelligence, neurotechnologies, the Internet of Things, biotechnology, materials science, quantum computing, information accumulation and storage, unmanned vehicles, and technologies determined by the physical, digital, and biological worlds, all grounded in a philosophy of balance and harmony between humanity and nature rather than their exclusion. Furthermore, the United Nations has declared 2021 as the year of the creative economy.
To address this issue, it is proposed to employ the Agile method, which is innovative and facilitates the adaptation of organizations, production, and management to their environments while addressing the challenges of reforming economic structures. Through breakthrough information technologies, one must identify "bifurcation points," forecast societal development, and discover options for a "positive creative breakthrough" in societal progress aimed at minimizing threats, adapting to environments, overcoming the "new normal," and forecasting economic and societal developments through profitable breakthrough digital technologies.
At the core of these breakthrough technologies is the application of concepts pertaining to the digitalization of society by 2030, sustainable development by 2030, and the Human Development Project, all adopted at governmental levels. The data presented are the results of empirical research and theoretical analysis that elucidate the impact of creative technologies on the economy, which is evolving into a creative, innovative, and breakthrough model. Ukraine has joined the EU's "Creative Europe" program, signing an agreement on October 12, 2021.
The authors of this article have initiated an exploration of the problems of the creative economy, focusing on the development of regenerative economies (green, blue — waste recycling), aiming to resolve issues related to finding effective pathways for economic, business, and societal development in the era of digital transformations to ensure the global competitiveness of the state. Our research indicates that the creative economy is based on new values of frugality, inclusivity, and balance, driven by structural changes that seek to move away from reductionist philosophy and transition towards the philosophy of the ecopolis as a circular economy, thus representing a "real breakthrough" in the digitalization of the economy, society, and humanity.
We endeavor to illustrate that at the core of creativity lies human capital, which replaces oil, and in the contemporary world, the various trajectories of creative economy development generate over 3% of global GDP, amounting to over $2 trillion and providing 30 million jobs, contributing to the formation of new values that are crucial for the resilience of urban transformations.
In light of this, we emphasize the necessity of developing an innovative model for enterprises, which must devise strategies for the development of a creative economy and a balanced approach to addressing sustainable development challenges. The results achieved are intertwined with the development of a creative economy that will enable the realization of: 1) Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, under which the economy must be reformatted both centrally and regionally; 2) fostering idea generation and improving the image of depressed areas; 3) transforming industrial zones into centers of creative cultural life, which will become new attractors for businesses, citizens, tourists, and youth.
Therefore, institutions of higher education should introduce a course titled "Philosophy of the Creative Economy."