ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to bring the two general levels of analysis together, arguing against segmentation and partial understandings that treat creativity as either individual or sociocultural. As a consequence, creative expression is also a form of cultural expression and, ultimately, one of the most illustrative forms of cultural participation: engaging with cultural artifacts to produce new cultural artifacts; employing culture to generate culture. Creativity, or the capacity to bring about the new, has always fascinated mankind. This is reflected both in the numerous attempts to conceptualize creativity and in the strong contemporary belief that creativity is "good for the economy, good for the individual, good for society and good for education". Creativity is on the side not only of innovation against convention, but also of the exceptional individual against the collectivity, of the present moment against the weight of the past, and of mind or intelligence against inert matter.
