Milieus of creativity

the role of places, environments, and spatial contexts

Peter Meusburger

pp. 97-153

in: Peter Meusburger, Joachim Funke, Edgar Wunder (eds), Milieus of creativity, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

Although some of the earliest case studies on famous scientists addressed the importance of parents, peer groups, teachers, and fortuitous events for creative per sons (e.g., Candolle, 1873; Ellis, 1926; Ostwald, 1909), interactions with the envi ronment did not figure in the first theoretical conceptions of creativity. Researchers claimed that creative persons are gifted with special innate talents and capacities that others lack and that creativity is a gift or innate talent that cannot be acquired or taught (see Boden, 2004, pp. 14–15). This concept eventually raised a number of questions. For example, why are highly creative individuals not evenly distributed over time and space? Why are certain cities and historical periods characterized by great creativity in the visual arts, music, and science, whereas others are not? Why are certain research departments or universities so successful at copiously producing outstanding creative scientists, whereas others are not? Why does the large majority of Nobel Prize winners stem from such a small share of universities? Reflecting growing interest in the social environment as a variable, these questions indicated a change in creativity research.However, interest in spatial disparities of creativity and in the impact of spatial contexts, spatial settings and spatial relations on creativity did not evolve until the late twentieth century. One reason for such belatedness is that new, original, and valuable ideas and topics often encounter resistance because they usually threaten continuities and tradition and may destroy existing paradigms, power relations, and self-efficacy. Both ignorance and the highly valued preexisting knowledge of experts can block novel ideas and can lead merely to the production of tried and trusted correct answers (Cropley, 2006, p. 402).