Towards a Sociological Perspective on Creativity as a Competency for Future Professionals
The study of creativity has undergone various shifts in focus. Initially, it was associated with religious topics and exceptional cases, such as geniuses.
This ancient idea connects with what Elias rejects: the image of homo clausus, the man independent of society.
It is possible to analyze the tensions between independence and dependence, as Elias (1990) expresses: the differences between human independence and dependence are at the core of what we refer to when speaking about power relations among people in a society. As shown in Figure 1, there are different traditions regarding human knowledge.
Figure 1. Traditions of Human Knowledge. Source: Manzo (2012), Own elaboration (2017)
Creativity can potentially be enhanced through an educational and social context that fosters it. Because the individual is the result of the influence of context and, in a dialectical relationship, the context is also the result of what the individual does.
This competency does not imply something mystical, but rather learning. As Guilford (1967, p. 13) states: “Creativity is the key to education, in every sense, and the solution to most of the serious problems”; or as Yoruk and Runco (2014, p. 1) affirm: “Creativity is being discussed in education and business, as well as academic psychology.”
Interest in the study of creativity arose in the 1950s, after Guilford became president of the American Psychological Association (APA). The construct will be addressed by restricting the scope to what has been termed “little c” creativity—that is, cases of using this skill in everyday situations (Richards, 2010). Favoring this view implicitly means considering creativity not as an exceptional case, but as an opportunity to manifest it daily in social spaces. As Dubet (2015) argues, old racist theories have shifted their argument: biological inequalities have been replaced by cultural differences regarded as irreducible. This idea connects with a conception of creativity as a capacity that can be developed to help bridge primarily economic gaps.
Creative performance mediates between similar and different outcomes. Interculturality, present in society, can be valued as an invitation to new opportunities for exchange. A conception of difference would emerge, as Dubet (2015) suggests, individuals do not seek social inequalities, but their choices generate them.
What can be observed about creativity as a human quality is not related to its level of development, but to its personal reach and social use, as Herrán (2008) mentions. It is also interesting to note the development of paradigms on which the creativity construct is based, presented by Glaveanu (2010) in Figure 2. Here we can observe the possible relationship between creativity and social space.
Figure 3. Three Paradigms: (The, I, and We) on Creativity. Source: Glaveanu (2010), Own elaboration (2017)
Knowing other conceptions would help improve creative performance. If a person decides to develop their creative competency in any field, profit or non-profit, they will seek to challenge existing limits. They will not settle, and using Elias’s metaphor, rather than humbly accepting the label of outsider, they will strive to transcend that and other labels. Because individuals’ participation in different social networks will be a constant choice.
The functions of higher education involve considering various facets. This educational level should generate new knowledge through research, prepare the professionals society needs, provide spaces for reflection and debate on urgent human problems, and exercise critique through its faculty.
The university system would include among its aims the promotion of creative ideas and thoughts, as Elisondo et al. (2009) note.
Shifting from educating elites to reaching the masses posed a great challenge for universities. As Dubet (2015) states, the old structuring of inequalities in social classes organized a highly unequal world; higher education emerged as a tool that could enable social mobility.
Dr. Sonia Grotz