Search results

Refugees are possibly the most creative people. Forced to move by any number of pressures — military, social, political, economic — they make perilous journeys to places safer than those of their origin, which may nevertheless be fraught with danger. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai states that as refugees move through shifting contexts and "can never afford to let their imaginations rest too long, even if they wished to." The requirement for refugees to "build worlds" in response to the destruction of their homes — places that have constituted their worlds for years — highlights both their closeness to, and their distance from, those into whose worlds refugees now impact. We all need to build worlds, but for some this imaginative requirement is more pressing. This is a moment of heightened importance for the many senses of dignity, subjectification and anticipation that Hannah Arendt had already noted.

Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape traditional forms in the light of changing historical circumstances. In this lively volume, fourteen distinguished anthropologists explore the life of creativity in social life across the globe and within the study of ethnography itself. Contributors include Barbara A. Babcock, Edward M. Bruner, James W. Fernandez, Don Handelman, Smadar Lavie, José E. Limon, Barbara Myerhoff, Kirin Narayan, Renato Rosaldo, Richard Schechner, Edward L. Schieffelin, Marjorie Shostak, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, and Edith Turner.

This commentary reflects on how creativity is dehumanised (and rehumanised) and how its labour aspects are hindered (and highlighted) in the three recent developments in our understanding of arts, culture and creativity: the creative industries; AI creativity; and creativity in everyday life. The creative industries discourse instrumentalises and dehumanises creativity by hiding labour perspectives and treating creativity as human capital and a generator of IP. Meanwhile, contemplating AI creativity helps us to look beyond the economic paradigm and consider key traits of human creativity and the creation process, some aspects of which are successfully emulated by AI. Yet, we also observe how AI dissociates creativity from human agency and how its cost-cutting effect can challenge human creators in many sectors. Finally, the idea of everyday creativity effectively rehumanises and democratises creativity; however, it not only lacks labour perspectives but also hinders them.