Affordances, personal culture, and place-based variation in creativity

Cultural sociologists increasingly use the concept of “affordances” to foreground materiality in cultural analysis, but its theoretical development remains uneven. This article strengthens two facets of affordances: their basis in non-declarative culture, and their involvement in creativity. Drawing on phenomenological and pragmatist-inspired work from the social and cognitive sciences, I argue that habits and skills sensitize actors to a subset of relevant affordances, and that improvisational action often involves a spontaneous responsiveness towards unconventional affordances. I illustrate this through an analysis of improvisational theatre. I find that seasoned improvisers are attuned to conventional sonic, scale, and visibility affordances of improv venues, which mediate performances in terms of their genre, pace, physicality, and emotional tenure. I also find that in order to meet the creative demands of the artform, habits and skills occasionally sensitize actors towards unconventional affordances. This account enhances affordances as a resource for analyzing culture and explaining human action.