Creativity in Practice – serie

Examining the improvised relationships among lifelong learning, formal education, and creativity, this volume provides detailed case studies of the creative work of people from a wide variety of fields. Each profile allows readers to explore how real people’s distinctive points of view, senses of purpose, and ultimate contributions developed through participation in complex worlds. By looking at creativity as a distributed and participatory process, these cases deconstruct the myth of solitary creative genius, while exploring applications of complexity theory to creative work and raising new questions for creativity research. Providing a framework for thinking about education, agency, and change, this book is valuable for both students and researchers seeking concrete ways to broaden their understanding of creativity in practice.

Examining the improvised relationships among lifelong learning, formal education, and creativity, this volume provides detailed case studies of the creative work of people from a wide variety of fields. Each profile allows readers to explore how real people’s distinctive points of view, senses of purpose, and ultimate contributions developed through participation in complex worlds. By looking at creativity as a distributed and participatory process, these cases deconstruct the myth of solitary creative genius, while exploring applications of complexity theory to creative work and raising new questions for creativity research. Providing a framework for thinking about education, agency, and change, this book is valuable for both students and researchers seeking concrete ways to broaden their understanding of creativity in practice.

Creative Work and Distributions of Power is a journey toward an energized and expanded space for considering power in discussions of creative work.Starting with the participatory creativity framework, this book expertly guides readers through case studies of two very different examples of creative work: the 20th-century, groundbreaking systems theorist Gregory Bateson and the current musician/polymath Tyler, The Creator. Through skillfully interwoven narrative and theory, chapters provide readers with a deep understanding of the roles of power in the ways creativity emerges from complex social, material, and historical systems. Thoughtful metalogues featured throughout the book bring readers into the minds of the authors, illustrating the very processes being analyzed. The result is a model of the functions of creative work in mediating personal capacities and larger societal forces.This critical addition to the discourse around creativity and its practice is an ideal first step in understanding creative work and distributions of power for readers in creativity studies as well as sociology and psychology courses.