Creativity

"Creativity" and "innovation" have risen to the front rank of propagated virtues, and are, it is claimed, about to rescue us from the current crises. The buzzwords are on everybody's lips – and nobody knows exactly what they mean.

Hartmut von Hentig, who has already provided us with an energetic rehabilitation and critical analysis of the term "education", now focuses his attention on the new trend word "creativity". He points out how vaguely and arbitrarily it is used in the vocabularies of the educational and political establishment, and how it cannot live up to the high hopes and expectations associated with it. Managers visit creativity workshops, businesses look for "innovative all-rounders" to fill executive positions, psychologists and teachers work at unleashing creative forces.

Hartmut von Hentig has observed, analysed and assessed these trends in this necessary and highly topical exposition, which reveals both the inflationary use of the term and the phoniness of much that is passed off as "creative". At the same time, the book advocates a more positive definition: creativity as an important antidote for a society that suppresses spontaneity and irregularity in the interests of rationalism, and attempts to force humanity to adhere to abstract systems and procedures.