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I have rarely seen a text that focuses on creativity from a scientific perspective. Typically, I have heard of creativity as merely being a measure of how creative others within vicinity of your work think you are. While this may still seem true in the whole of society, rest assured that it is only seeming. This book explores how the idea of creativity has evolved from the Individualist approach to the Contextualist approach with supporting research. In a society where Individualism is endemic, I feel it becomes even more important to understand how effective collaboration can bring about innovation as well as how our social environment in turn effects our generation of ideas. I do not recommend this text for those with only a practitioners interest in the subject of bringing about innovation, however. (although there is a short section relevant to implementation) This text focuses more on the theoretical aspects of creativity and innovation that have came about historically as well as recently.
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EXPLAINING CREATIVITY
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Explaining Creativity The Science of Human Innovation
R. Keith Sawyer
1 2006
3
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sawyer, R. Keith (Robert Keith) Explaining creativity: the science of human innovation/R. Keith Sawyer p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13 978-0-19-516164-9; 978-0-19-530445-9 (pbk.) ISBN 0-19-516164-5; 0-19-530445–4 (pbk.) 1. Creative ability. I. Title BF408.S284 2006 153.3'5—dc 22 2005012982
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have been studying and teaching creativity for more than ten years, and have published several academic books on the topic. But when you write a book like this one, summarizing an entire field for the interested general reader, it’s like learning the material all over again. It’s been a wonderful experience! I begin by thanking Mike Csikszentmihalyi for introducing me to the field of creativity research. Then, I owe a debt to my students, who have helped me discover how best to explain creativity. I’d like to thank all of the musicians, actors, and artists who I’ve observed and interviewed through the years, for sharing with me their perspectives on creativity. I am grateful to Oxford University Press; the idea for this book was born in a conversation with Joan Bossert, and my editor Catharine Carlin ably managed the process. And I’d like to thank my wife, Barb, who made this book possible; I started working on it soon after our wedding, and finished it just after our son Graham was born.
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CONTENTS
Part I Conceptions Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Introduction 3 Conceptions of Creativity 9
interlude 1 Defining Creativity