What do you think?
Rate this book
The Invention of Creativity: Modern Society and the Culture of the New
Contemporary society has seen an unprecedented rise in both the demand and the desire to be creative, to bring something new into the world. Once the reserve of artistic subcultures, creativity has now become a universal model for culture and an imperative in many parts of society.
In this new book, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz investigates how the ideal of creativity has grown into a major social force, from the art of the avant-garde and postmodernism to the ‘creative industries’ and the innovation economy, the psychology of creativity and self-growth, the media representation of creative stars, and the urban design of ‘creative cities’. Where creativity is often assumed to be a force for good, Reckwitz looks critically at how this imperative has developed from the 1970s to the present day. Though we may well perceive creativity as the realization of some natural and innate potential within us, it has rather to be understood within the structures of a very specific culture of the new in late modern society. The Invention of Creativity is a bold and refreshing counter to conventional wisdom that shows how our age is defined by radical and restrictive processes of social aestheticization. It will be of great interest to those working in a variety of disciplines, from cultural and social theory to art history and aesthetics.
In this new book, cultural sociologist Andreas Reckwitz investigates how the ideal of creativity has grown into a major social force, from the art of the avant-garde and postmodernism to the ‘creative industries’ and the innovation economy, the psychology of creativity and self-growth, the media representation of creative stars, and the urban design of ‘creative cities’. Where creativity is often assumed to be a force for good, Reckwitz looks critically at how this imperative has developed from the 1970s to the present day. Though we may well perceive creativity as the realization of some natural and innate potential within us, it has rather to be understood within the structures of a very specific culture of the new in late modern society. The Invention of Creativity is a bold and refreshing counter to conventional wisdom that shows how our age is defined by radical and restrictive processes of social aestheticization. It will be of great interest to those working in a variety of disciplines, from cultural and social theory to art history and aesthetics.
300 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 2012
16 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Andreas Reckwitz
20 books69 followersAndreas Reckwitz is a German sociologist and cultural theorist. He is professor at the institute of social sciences at Humboldt University Berlin.
Reckwitz studied sociology, Political science and philosophy in Bonn, Hamburg and Cambridge. He graduated 1994 in Cambridge, overseen by Anthony Giddens. He achieved his Dr. phil. in 1999 at Hamburg University. From 2001 to 2005 he worked there as assistant professor at the sociological faculty. In 2005 he became professor for sociology and sociology of culture at Konstanz University, 2010 professor for sociology of culture at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder). In 2020 Reckwitz became professor for sociology and sociology of culture at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Reckwitz is a prominent proponent of social practice theory and contributed to its development as an encompassing social and cultural theory. This serves as basis for his works on subjectivation, creativity and singularization of the social life.
In 2017 he published his work on the structure of the current late modern society ,Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten. Zum Strukturwandel der Moderne, which was published in English in 2020 as The Society of Singularities. In this book he analyses how economy, work, information technlogy, lifestyle, classes and politics follow a system which values singularity and devalues non-sigularity.
Reckwitz wrote several articles for the newspaper Die Zeit and appeared as an interview partner on the German national radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur discussing current socio-cultural and political trends and issues in western societies.
In 2019 Reckwitz was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.
Reckwitz studied sociology, Political science and philosophy in Bonn, Hamburg and Cambridge. He graduated 1994 in Cambridge, overseen by Anthony Giddens. He achieved his Dr. phil. in 1999 at Hamburg University. From 2001 to 2005 he worked there as assistant professor at the sociological faculty. In 2005 he became professor for sociology and sociology of culture at Konstanz University, 2010 professor for sociology of culture at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt (Oder). In 2020 Reckwitz became professor for sociology and sociology of culture at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Reckwitz is a prominent proponent of social practice theory and contributed to its development as an encompassing social and cultural theory. This serves as basis for his works on subjectivation, creativity and singularization of the social life.
In 2017 he published his work on the structure of the current late modern society ,Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten. Zum Strukturwandel der Moderne, which was published in English in 2020 as The Society of Singularities. In this book he analyses how economy, work, information technlogy, lifestyle, classes and politics follow a system which values singularity and devalues non-sigularity.
Reckwitz wrote several articles for the newspaper Die Zeit and appeared as an interview partner on the German national radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur discussing current socio-cultural and political trends and issues in western societies.
In 2019 Reckwitz was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Read
November 1, 2019Vom Mythos des Kreativen.
Es ist schick, kreativ zu sein, fast sogar gefordert, findet es sich doch auf fast jeder Stellenanzeige und das Kreative, das beschränkt sich nicht nur auf Malen, Schreiben, Handwerken (die "schönen" Künste), sondern weitet sich auch auf unsere Lebensweise aus. Wie können wir möglichst "kreativ", möglichst "authentisch" leben?
Reckwitz erzählt hier von der Idee des Kreativitätsdispositiv (das Dispositiv ganz im Foucault'schen Sinne) und entfaltet gewissermaßen eine Theorie über unsere heutige Gesellschaft, die von der Idee des Ästhetischen und des Neuen geprägt ist. Dass besonders der Begriff "ästhetisch" ziemlich ausgelutscht und durchdiskutiert ist, umgeht er genauso geschickt wie den Kulturbegriff. Seine Argumente sind geschickt formuliert und sinnig, treffen dabei genau den Kern des Selbstverwirklichungsproblem: In einer Welt, in der jeder kreativ und anders ist, wie kann ich noch kreativer und anders sein?
Empfehlenswert für alle Kultur- und Geschichtsnerds, Leser, die kleine Anekdotenausflüge nicht scheuen und Kreative.
Es ist schick, kreativ zu sein, fast sogar gefordert, findet es sich doch auf fast jeder Stellenanzeige und das Kreative, das beschränkt sich nicht nur auf Malen, Schreiben, Handwerken (die "schönen" Künste), sondern weitet sich auch auf unsere Lebensweise aus. Wie können wir möglichst "kreativ", möglichst "authentisch" leben?
Reckwitz erzählt hier von der Idee des Kreativitätsdispositiv (das Dispositiv ganz im Foucault'schen Sinne) und entfaltet gewissermaßen eine Theorie über unsere heutige Gesellschaft, die von der Idee des Ästhetischen und des Neuen geprägt ist. Dass besonders der Begriff "ästhetisch" ziemlich ausgelutscht und durchdiskutiert ist, umgeht er genauso geschickt wie den Kulturbegriff. Seine Argumente sind geschickt formuliert und sinnig, treffen dabei genau den Kern des Selbstverwirklichungsproblem: In einer Welt, in der jeder kreativ und anders ist, wie kann ich noch kreativer und anders sein?
Empfehlenswert für alle Kultur- und Geschichtsnerds, Leser, die kleine Anekdotenausflüge nicht scheuen und Kreative.
August 10, 2021
Having a larger (and knowledgeable) readership, this book could be disruptive.
Book postulates the existence of "creativity dispositif", the discursive, institutional and even urbanistic principle, that is forcing us to perform creatively in our everyday lives; or, in the other words, our life is supposed to become a creative act. Creativity, as a characteristic trait that was for a long time dedicated only to few people (such as artistic geniuses), was democratized and transferred to everyone through advertisement, popular culture, humanistic psychology and urbanism. This comes, however, with the cost, because it is impossible for everyone to create everything in their life a new. As such, creativity dispositif is forcing us to aspire to live a life that cannot be ultimately fulfilled and we are destined to focus on a goal that cannot be reached.
With saying this, the book is deconstructing a lot of concepts that are commonly understood as "beneficial". For example, the humanistic turn in psychology bringing focus on self-realization and self-fulfillment, is usually perceived as "good", because psychology detached from medicinal view on human psyche (the psychological problem is an illness, syndrom, that has to be cured) to more environmental approach (focusing on what is making us healthy, strong and happy, instead of a problem, that is making us miserable). However, humanistic psychology also brought our never-ending fight for self-improvement, because we cannot never really become "who we really are".
I truly enjoyed reading the book, despite having several concerns. Author did not disclose his methodology, we are only confronted with the results of his investigation. When reading about genealogy in the introduction, I was looking forward for postulating the present state of affairs and then digging deeper; slowly discovering individual steps leading to it. Instead, author rearrange his findings in the chronological manner, so we start traditionally from the past heading towards the present. It is, then, not obvious, why there are some chapters and not the others (e.g., John Dewey postulated that the innate human nature is being transformed through active experiencing their environment, leading to much the same end of active self-exploration as humanistic psychology invented few decades later) and why there are not mentioned at least few concepts contradicting to the main idea (e.g., is the mindfulness movement with its' adaptation of the "living in the present moment" part of the creativity dispositif, or is it opposing it?).
Book is, truly, the work of humanities (in contrast to social sciences) and as such it relies on the ability of reader to trust the narrative author created. Yet, as I said, this book could become disruptive. It creates a discursive vacuum, as all good deconstructive literature does. And it poses the question, what we are going to put in this vacuum, once we know, we lived our life by the organizational principle created long before we were even born.
Book postulates the existence of "creativity dispositif", the discursive, institutional and even urbanistic principle, that is forcing us to perform creatively in our everyday lives; or, in the other words, our life is supposed to become a creative act. Creativity, as a characteristic trait that was for a long time dedicated only to few people (such as artistic geniuses), was democratized and transferred to everyone through advertisement, popular culture, humanistic psychology and urbanism. This comes, however, with the cost, because it is impossible for everyone to create everything in their life a new. As such, creativity dispositif is forcing us to aspire to live a life that cannot be ultimately fulfilled and we are destined to focus on a goal that cannot be reached.
With saying this, the book is deconstructing a lot of concepts that are commonly understood as "beneficial". For example, the humanistic turn in psychology bringing focus on self-realization and self-fulfillment, is usually perceived as "good", because psychology detached from medicinal view on human psyche (the psychological problem is an illness, syndrom, that has to be cured) to more environmental approach (focusing on what is making us healthy, strong and happy, instead of a problem, that is making us miserable). However, humanistic psychology also brought our never-ending fight for self-improvement, because we cannot never really become "who we really are".
I truly enjoyed reading the book, despite having several concerns. Author did not disclose his methodology, we are only confronted with the results of his investigation. When reading about genealogy in the introduction, I was looking forward for postulating the present state of affairs and then digging deeper; slowly discovering individual steps leading to it. Instead, author rearrange his findings in the chronological manner, so we start traditionally from the past heading towards the present. It is, then, not obvious, why there are some chapters and not the others (e.g., John Dewey postulated that the innate human nature is being transformed through active experiencing their environment, leading to much the same end of active self-exploration as humanistic psychology invented few decades later) and why there are not mentioned at least few concepts contradicting to the main idea (e.g., is the mindfulness movement with its' adaptation of the "living in the present moment" part of the creativity dispositif, or is it opposing it?).
Book is, truly, the work of humanities (in contrast to social sciences) and as such it relies on the ability of reader to trust the narrative author created. Yet, as I said, this book could become disruptive. It creates a discursive vacuum, as all good deconstructive literature does. And it poses the question, what we are going to put in this vacuum, once we know, we lived our life by the organizational principle created long before we were even born.
Read
September 24, 2025blablabla
September 12, 2020
Sen once git genealogy nedir onu ogren GERIZEKALI.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews