On September 12, Charles Leadbeater will open the Incubate festival week with a lecture on social innovation and the role the arts can play in this process. Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He is Tony Blair’s favourite corporate thinker. He has advised companies, cities and governments on innovation strategy and drew on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity. This book charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning.

In 2009, Charles Leadbeater wrote the essay ‘The Art of With’; a most interesting and highly recommended text on the practices of the (avant garde) art and how it stands in opposition to the art and the world of to and for:

Often in the name of doing things for people traditional, hierarchical organisations end up doing things to people. Companies say they work for consumers but often treat them like targets to be aimed at, wallets to be emptied, desires to be excited and manipulated.

The arts, and the modern avant garde in particular, has stood in opposition to this commodified, regimented world of to and for. The arts offer a space for contemplation and reflection, challenge and controversy, higher meanings and deeper purpose. Yet in its way the modern art world and modern arts institutions embody the principles of to and for just as powerfully as the modern factory or school.

The modern, iconoclastic avant garde starts from the idea of separation and specialism. To produce good art, artists have to separate themselves off from the society around them – physically, emotionally, morally, socially – the artist as a self-styled resistance fighter pitted against the trivialising distractions of popular culture. The untrammelled imagination of the avant garde artist is one of the last redoubts against bourgeoise, traditional, commodified culture.

Further on in the essay, Leadbeater goes on talking about the resemblances and role of the web within this context; how the art and the web of with drive innovation:

The appeal of the web, however, stems from the way it connects to and amplifies the idea of with in other areas of life. The working ethos of open source communities, Wikipedia and the web more generally is a culture in which people work with people. In the world of the web the main principle is that you can freely communicate with anyone you need to regardless of title or hierarchy.

Innovation invariably comes from a version of with: creative collaboration and conversation in which people share and blend their ideas. With should be the guiding principle of politics in liberal communities: politicians working with people to find solutions to shared problems. People want a more gown up, bottom up, conversational politics rather than being spun messages or broadcast to from on high.

Download the full essay by Charles Leadbeater here in a pdf file. The text is licensed under Creative Commons. Presale for the Charles Leadbeater lecture & panel has begun. Tickets are for sale through the website of Incubate.

Innovation is a keyword at Incubate. Therefore Incubate and BKKC will organize the Incubate Innovation Lecture 2010, which will take place in De NWE Vorst on September 12. We’re very honored that Charles Leadbeater will hold this year’s lecture.

Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He is Tony Blair’s favorite corporate thinker. He has advised companies, cities and governments on innovation strategy and drew on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity. This book charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning.

In 2005 Charles was ranked by management consultancy Accenture as one of the top management thinkers in the world. He advised a wide range of organizations including the BBC, Vodafone, Microsoft, Ericsson, Channel Four Television and the Royal Shakespeare Company. As an associate editor of the Independent he helped Helen Fielding devise Bridget Jones’s Diary. He wrote the first British report on the rise of social entrepreneurship, which has since become a global movement. His report on the potential for the web to generate social change led to the creation of the Social Innovation Camp movement.

Brabant Stad has the ambition to become cultural capital in 2018. To become cultural capital, cities also have to invest in innovation. Whereas, for instance, the Eindhoven region emphasizes technological innovations, Tilburg wants to invest more in social innovation as part of this ambition.

The web is creating a more open, participative and collaborative approach to culture. In his keynote, Mr. Leadbeater will focus on the role the arts can play in this social innovation process. What’s the role of a changing arts practice in a changing society?

After Charles’ keynote lecture, a panel of experts from the fields of arts, economy and politics will take place. The panelists in the discussion are Wim van de Donk, Dick Rijken, Bas van Heur and Wout Withagen.

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