ABSTRACT
This chapter explores understandings of creativity in relation to social relations, play and pedagogy in policy and practice: where these understandings come from in terms of their theoretical heritage, what functions they serve, how they are used, and in whose interest. The focus is on discourses about creativity circulating in the public domain. The aim here is not to investigate creativity itself, but rather what is written and said about it. Creativity is thus presented here as something constructed through discourse, and the ensuing discussion aims to envision more clearly how such constructions work, what claims are being made, and how we might choose to locate ourselves in relation to these claims. In the critical review of literature from which this chapter originates, (Banaji & Burn 2007b), the rhetorics of creativity are given names which broadly correspond to the main theoretical underpinnings or the ideological beliefs of those who deploy them. Thus, the rhetorics referred to in this chapter are as follows:
Creative Genius;
Democratic Creativity and Cultural Re/Production;
Ubiquitous Creativity;
Creativity for Social Good;
Creativity as Economic Imperative;
Play and Creativity;
Creativity and Cognition;
The Creative Affordances of Technology; and
The Creative Classroom
Creative Arts and Political Challenge.
