We’ve got the power: an exploration of relational power and discontinuous continuity in a creative ecosystem of techno-music

This study explores how creative ecosystem actors collectively produce creative outputs that are both continuous and discontinuous with conventions of creative work in the ecosystem at hand. Output is considered creative when it is novel and unexpected. However, a degree of continuation of these same conventions is needed for legitimacy and even success. Our exploration of the techno-music ecosystem reveals that this is shaped through power struggles between actors in a multi-layered structure. Ecosystem actors are organised in upper-, middle-, and underground layers according to their distinct interests. In this structure, creative output specific to these layers is reinforced as continuous by power actions, causing discontinuity at ecosystem-level. This discontinuity triggers power actions reinforcing commonalities and continuity at ecosystem-level and causing discontinuity at layer-level, triggering power actions reinforcing division. This process reinforces discontinuous continuity of creative output constituted across multiple levels through the collective enactment of power by diverse actors.