Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation [Hardcover]

R. Keith Sawyer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195161645 | ISBN-13: 978-0195161649 | Publication Date: January 19, 2006 | Edition: 1

In the last 50 years, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have increasingly turned to studying creativity, so we now know more about it than ever before. However, until about a decade ago, creativity researchers focused only on highly valued activities, such as creating masterpieces in art and making highly significant discoveries in science. In Explaining Creativity, R. Keith Sawyer extends the study of creativity by examining not only these endeavors, but also movies, music videos, cartoons, video games, hypertext fiction, stage performance, business innovation, and advances in computer technology.

Sawyer uses the sociocultural approach to creativity that was pioneered by Howard Becker, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Howard Gardner, allowing him to move beyond the individual to consider the social process. Taking into account the interdisciplinary nature of creativity, Sawyer integrates psychological data with anthropological research on creativity in non-Western cultures and sociological studies on the situations, contexts, and networks of creative activity. For more information, see www.explainingcreativity.com.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sawyer has put together a mountain of research from a variety of fields to create a unified approach to understanding how people manage to do something different. His book is readable and learned, origninal, but mindful of its relation to all that other work, and well worth the attention of anyone who wants to think seriously about innovation in the arts and in social organizations."--Howard S. Becker, author of Art World, Tricks of the Trade and Outsiders

"An extremely knowledgable, wide-ranging, integrative summary of how the social sciences understand creativity. Keith Sawyer has again produced an intelligent and valuable contribution to knowledge. This is a volume that any scholar or lay-person interested in what creativity entails will want to have."--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Director, Quality of Life Research Center and C.S. and D.J. Davidson, Professor, Peter F. Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University

"With the publication of Explaining Creativity, Keith Sawyer has emerged as the leading young scholar and proponent of a sociocultural approach to the study of creativity. And with his remarkable grasp of this young field, Professor Sawyer has written the most comprehensive and compelling work on creativity studies in years."--David Henry Feldman, Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, and co-author of Changing the World

"Without doubt Explaining Creativity is the most comprehensive single-volume presentation of what we know about the creative process, person, and product. Besides that, the book is extremely well written. It would be my first recommendation for anyone fascinated with creativity in all of its complexities and manifestations. There's simply nothing better out there for either specialist or general reader."--Dean Keith Simonton, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, and author of Origins of Genius

About the Author

R. Keith Sawyer is Associate Professor of Education at Washington University. He is the author of many books on creativity, including Improvised Dialogues, Creating Conversations, and Group Creativity.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (January 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195161645
• ISBN-13: 978-0195161649
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,658,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Keith Sawyer, a professor of education, psychology, and business at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country's leading scientific experts on creativity and innovation. After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, Dr. Sawyer began his career with a two-year stint designing videogames for Atari. He then worked for 6 years as a management consultant in Boston and New York, advising large corporations on the strategic use of information technology. Dr. Sawyer entered doctoral study at the University of Chicago in 1990 and attained his PhD in psychology in 1994. He is best known for his studies of jazz and improvisational theater groups. His twelve books include GROUP GENIUS and EXPLAINING CREATIVITY, and he has published over 80 scientific articles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Science of Creativity, November 3, 2007

By 

Paul Silvia (Greensboro, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (Paperback)

"Explaining Creativity" is one of the best introductions to the science of creativity. It develops a perspective on creativity---an approach known as the sociocultural model---and applies it to a striking range of areas. This sophisticated book requires an open mind. Readers looking for a treatise on the "healing power of the creative spirit" and related pop-psyc pseudoscience will not enjoy "Explaining Creativity," but readers curious to know scientific facts about creativity and innovation will get a lot out of it.

For a different perspective, see Robert Weisberg's fine book "Creativity."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explaining the Creativity of this Review, November 21, 2009

By 

J. Patterson "Illumiere" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and easy to read, March 5, 2009

By 

F. Green (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (Hardcover)

An excellent overview of creativity research. Approachable for both layman and researcher. Interesting findings from much research over the years. An important piece in the perspectives on creativity.