You are not Creative

Participatory Creativity by Edward Clapp
Routledge, December 1, 2017

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Edward Clapp believes that individuals are not creative; ideas are creative. While traditional perspectives reserved creativity for a select few, Clapp’s capacious view welcomes all to the creative process. This text reveals a systems-based perspective where creativity is socially distributed and involves the merging of individual agency and collective participation. According to this perspective, no one person is ever being creative or “doing creativity;” instead, everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the creative process with his or her unique skills and perspectives. Most important, everyone must contribute because creativity cannot be achieved in isolation. The development of creative ideas is “purposeful work” that is neither “fixed nor unidimensional.” So, for educators to foster this participation, we need to embrace social and cultural agility and thoughtfully facilitate collaboration. The latter is especially crucial because creativity is not immune to social tensions. Embracing Clapp’s perspective will help educators to build agency in, and a sense of community among, their students. Creativity, Clapp concludes, is “neither a spark nor a flash of insight” but a system that unites parts, people, connections, thoughts, and feelings; creativity encourages all to rethink how things, ranging from objects to speeches to organizations, are made. In dynamically reframing innovation, this text assists educators in providing a more equitable creative learning experience for all.