Creativity and the rhetorical city

Abstract

In attempting to understand the potential and material impact of the creative imagination in a whole host of realms there is an almost overwhelming temptation to assume that creativity is necessarily a good thing. In the context of the role of creativity in instigating social change, this chapter suggests that in some respects it is best to conceptualise the dangers inherent in adopting an apparently creative approach. Perhaps indeed, the role of the academic should be to help conceive of a strategy to help rid the city of the creative craze that has beset it in recent decades. In short, in the inter-disciplinary arena of cultural policy we need to be aware of how we can protect the city from creativity as much as we are open to the potential of embracing that creativity in urban settings.