Creativity in Perspective: A Sociocultural and Critical Account

This article starts from the premise that creativity is a social construction and focuses on historical and scientific accounts of this phenomenon. Using a perspectival model in a pragmatist key, it outlines three historical perspectives on creativitythe He-, I-, and We-paradigmsdifferentiated internally by two positionsartist and engineer. It then argues that, instead of dialogues between perspectives, fruitful for creativity research, we are often facing monological relations. In the end, possibilities for thirdness are explored, including the position of the craftsman, in developing a sociocultural as well as critical account of what it means to create.