Andreas Reckwitz is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).

"Whether you think you are creative or not, you should read on. In carefully dissecting the social and historical constitution of this concept, Andreas Reckwitz provides a compelling account of how creativity has become a defining feature of contemporary society."Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University"Reckwitz’s The Invention of Creativity is not a "creative industries" book. It is instead a sociology that addresses not so much the aestheticization of society as the societalization of the aesthetic – of the pervasion of what Reckwitz, with Foucault, calls the aesthetic dispositif. Neither a dismissal nor a celebration, the book is instead a genealogy of creativity – of how homo economicus has metamorphosed into homo aestheticus."Scott Lash, Goldsmiths, University of London"An impressive study." Die Zeit"With great intelligence and an argument grounded in scholarship, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz shows just why we perceive creativity as a 'natural' human ability, and one that we feel is absolutely essential in order for us to develop and grow as individuals."  Frankfurter Rundschau"A fascinating and ambitious book with a provocative thesis."Times Literary Supplement

• ContentsPreface to the English editionIntroduction: The Inevitability of Creativity1. Aestheticisation and the creativity dispositif: The social regime of aesthetic novelty2. Artistic creation, the genius and the audience: The formation of the modern artistic field3. Centrifugal art: Dissolving the boundaries of art practices4. The rise of the aesthetic economy: Permanent innovation, creative industries and the design economy5. The psychological turn in creativity: From the pathological genius to the normalisation of the self as resource6. The Genesis of the star system: The mass media construction of expressive individuality7. Creative cities: Culturalising urban life8. Society of creativity: Structures, dissonance, alternativesNotesIndex

Andreas Reckwitz is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).

"Whether you think you are creative or not, you should read on. In carefully dissecting the social and historical constitution of this concept, Andreas Reckwitz provides a compelling account of how creativity has become a defining feature of contemporary society."Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University"Reckwitz’s The Invention of Creativity is not a "creative industries" book. It is instead a sociology that addresses not so much the aestheticization of society as the societalization of the aesthetic – of the pervasion of what Reckwitz, with Foucault, calls the aesthetic dispositif. Neither a dismissal nor a celebration, the book is instead a genealogy of creativity – of how homo economicus has metamorphosed into homo aestheticus."Scott Lash, Goldsmiths, University of London"An impressive study." Die Zeit"With great intelligence and an argument grounded in scholarship, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz shows just why we perceive creativity as a 'natural' human ability, and one that we feel is absolutely essential in order for us to develop and grow as individuals."  Frankfurter Rundschau"A fascinating and ambitious book with a provocative thesis."Times Literary Supplement

• ContentsPreface to the English editionIntroduction: The Inevitability of Creativity1. Aestheticisation and the creativity dispositif: The social regime of aesthetic novelty2. Artistic creation, the genius and the audience: The formation of the modern artistic field3. Centrifugal art: Dissolving the boundaries of art practices4. The rise of the aesthetic economy: Permanent innovation, creative industries and the design economy5. The psychological turn in creativity: From the pathological genius to the normalisation of the self as resource6. The Genesis of the star system: The mass media construction of expressive individuality7. Creative cities: Culturalising urban life8. Society of creativity: Structures, dissonance, alternativesNotesIndex

Andreas Reckwitz is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).

"Whether you think you are creative or not, you should read on. In carefully dissecting the social and historical constitution of this concept, Andreas Reckwitz provides a compelling account of how creativity has become a defining feature of contemporary society."Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University"Reckwitz’s The Invention of Creativity is not a "creative industries" book. It is instead a sociology that addresses not so much the aestheticization of society as the societalization of the aesthetic – of the pervasion of what Reckwitz, with Foucault, calls the aesthetic dispositif. Neither a dismissal nor a celebration, the book is instead a genealogy of creativity – of how homo economicus has metamorphosed into homo aestheticus."Scott Lash, Goldsmiths, University of London"An impressive study." Die Zeit"With great intelligence and an argument grounded in scholarship, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz shows just why we perceive creativity as a 'natural' human ability, and one that we feel is absolutely essential in order for us to develop and grow as individuals."  Frankfurter Rundschau"A fascinating and ambitious book with a provocative thesis."Times Literary Supplement

• ContentsPreface to the English editionIntroduction: The Inevitability of Creativity1. Aestheticisation and the creativity dispositif: The social regime of aesthetic novelty2. Artistic creation, the genius and the audience: The formation of the modern artistic field3. Centrifugal art: Dissolving the boundaries of art practices4. The rise of the aesthetic economy: Permanent innovation, creative industries and the design economy5. The psychological turn in creativity: From the pathological genius to the normalisation of the self as resource6. The Genesis of the star system: The mass media construction of expressive individuality7. Creative cities: Culturalising urban life8. Society of creativity: Structures, dissonance, alternativesNotesIndex