Creativity, Society, and Gender: Contextualizing and Redefining Creativity

Abstract

Abstract:Creativity is currently being redefined in more inclusive and complex ways. This article examines old and new ways of viewing creativity, focusing especially on how historically creativity has been considered a male preserve and the need for a more inclusive definition that includes areas such as Creativity, that ongoing mystery and subject of continuous fascination, has moved from the rarified realm of the arts and sciences to become a topic of considerable public interest at the opening of the 21 st century (Montuori & Donnelly, 2013). The economy is driven by creativity and so-called 'disruptive innovation.' New disciplines and practices like design and social innovation reflect a greater role for creativity, as does the recently popular idea of 'self-reinvention' (Elliott, 2013;Elliott & Lemert, 2009).The context for this increased focus on creativity is the growing recognition that ours is a time of massive social disequilibrium: one epoch is ending and a new one has yet to emerge. The frequent use of the prefix post-, as in post-industrial, post-modern, and post-materialist, to describe our time is an indicator that ours is a transitional period, so much so that Sardar has used the term "post-normal," to refer to an era in which an old world is dying and we need creativity and imagination to create a new world (Inglehart, 1997;Lyotard, 1984;Ogilvy, 1989;Sardar, 1999Sardar, , 2010Sardar, , 2015. 2 At the same time that creativity is seen as important, even vital, to the economy, our understanding of creativity is changing. If in Modernity creativity was identified with the classic image of the lone genius and his masterpieces, whether works of art or scientific discoveries, today there is much greater emphasis on collaborative creativity, on creative networks, and on "everyday" creativity (Eisler, 2000;Eisler & Montuori, 2007;Montuori, 2011a;Montuori & Donnelly, 2013;Richards, 2007aRichards, , 2007b Runco & Richards, 1997).To understand the impact and nature of creativity in this new context, it is important to approach creativity from a larger historical, and transdisciplinary perspective. Yet, ironically, there has been a movement in the psychology of creativity to actually shorten the traditional definition of creativity (stressing novel and useful or valuable), to simply novel (Weisberg, 2015).In contrast, we will expand the definition of creativity in a number of critical respects. We will examine creativity as an interconnected and interdependent phenomenon. In another departure from conventional approaches, we will focus attention on the hidden subtext of gender underlying how creativity has been socially constructed. We will also propose a contextualized approach to creativity that takes into account both its individual and social dimensions and how these relate to what Eisler (Eisler, 1987, 2007 has called a partnership rather than dominator or domination model of society. TOWARD A GENDER-HOLISTIC VIEW OF CREATIVITYUntil fairly recently, discourse about creativity has been almost exclusi...

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