Cultures of Creativity Lego Fonden 2013 PDF

David Gauntlett & Bo Stjerne Thomsen

CULTURES OF
CREATIVITY
Nurturing creative mindsets across cultures

Main report
ABOUT THE AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
David Gauntlett is Professor of Media and Communications We are grateful to all our essay contributors, who were
at the University of Westminster, where he co-directs willing to challenge us on the notions of play and
the UK’s leading centre for media and communications creativity, and to condense their ideas into the brief essay
research. He is the author of several books, including Crea- format.
tive Explorations (2007) and Making is Connecting (2011).
He has conducted collaborative research with a number of We received kind advice from Professor Mihály Csíkszent
the world’s leading creative organisations, including the mihályi in the early stages of the project, and from
BBC, the British Library, and Tate. For almost a decade he Professor Mitch Resnick, whose inspired guidance helped
has worked with the LEGO Group on innovation in creativity, us along the way. Our playful learning panel of academic
play and learning. experts contributed with questions and directions for the
project.
Bo Stjerne Thomsen is Director for Research & Learning
in the LEGO Foundation, where he directs the long-term The project would not have reached completion without
academic research based on the values of LEGO play and the continuous attention of consultants, Physicians World
learning, and through an extensive collaboration with Europe, and we appreciate their careful planning, editing,
academic experts and research institutions. He has a and commenting on our ideas and the final report.
background in architecture, interaction design and robo-
tics and received an elite research scholarship for his PhD
on performative learning environments with a research
fellowship at the MIT Media Lab.

ABOUT THE LEGO FOUNDATION

Founded in 1986, the LEGO Foundation’s efforts revolve
around the belief that every child should be able to reveal
and realize its learning and creative potential. We believe
in the transformative power of play and work to support
children’s ability to become active self-directed learners.
The LEGO Foundation is built on the enduring values of

the founding family behind the LEGO Group. Our aim is to
raise awareness of the role of play for creativity, learning
and development and to build and share knowledge about
how to engage children in learning-rich play activities. We
develop and support research and collaborate with leading
academic institutions to cultivate and spread this know-
ledge, and we strive to equip and empower children to
build a better future for themselves and their societies.
This report is published by the LEGO Foundation

(www.legofoundation.com), and licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Un-
ported License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-sa/3.0/)
CONTENTS
4 PREFACE
5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
8 1: INTRODUCTION
14 2: THE CREATIVE MINDSET
18 3: PLAYING, MAKING, SHARING
33 4: BRIDGING CULTURES
40 5: CONCLUSION: NURTURING A CREATIVE MINDSET ACROSS CULTURES
48 REFERENCES
Cultures of Creativity 3 Contents

PREFACE For more than a decade, the LEGO Foundation has been
One of the great dilemmas of human life concerns how to driven by the purpose to reveal and realize every child’s
flourish as an individual, while existing as part of a society. potential, and to empower children to create a better
Our societies have developed incredibly powerful cultures future, based on their natural creativity, curiosity, and
by combining the creative competences of the individual playfulness. Creativity speaks to a child’s natural urge to
human being, with ways of making things and the creation give form, or expression, to the products of her imagina-
of meaning together. tion, and it involves bringing inner feelings and ideas into
being (Ackermann, 2004).
Cultures are shaped by the things that we make and share.
Our hopes and ideals are embodied in meaningful words, The motivation for Cultures of Creativity came out of a
images, objects, and tools that we create. These things desire to understand how creativity is nurtured across
build, challenge, and develop a culture, and are essential cultures, at a time where creativity is one of the most
ingredients in the human ability to learn, adapt, and sought-after competences. At the same time, creativity in
innovate. In this respect, cultures are made by humans, but children appears to be declining as they grow older, and
culture also significantly shapes young children, because teachers, parents, and educational and governmental
the human race is amazingly adaptive, especially in the institutions struggle to support it.
critical young years.
This report describes how human cultures can be
Across cultures and backgrounds, children are born with a characterized by their similarities rather than their
natural urge to be playful, to take risks, and to create their differences, and emphasizes the importance of recog
own worlds. While different cultures begin to recognize nizing playfulness and creativity to develop a sustainable
that creativity should be one of the most important society prepared to accommodate the rapid changes
priorities for a society, we unfortunately still lack an associated with technology and globalization.
understanding of how to support it.
We are exploring the role of playing, making, and sharing
throughout childhood in different cultures, the strategies
which can foster a creative mindset across a range of
cultural backgrounds, and the role that creativity can play
We can all play a role in the development of global cultures, now and in the
in nurturing creative mindsets; future.
‘
For this purpose, we approached a range of leading academic
Creativity can be supported by parents, teachers,
researchers across different disciplines, to help us under-
businesses, and even communities. As a matter of
stand this mission, and we developed this report which
fact, it is very important that support is offered
describes the relationships between a creative mindset
by everyone involved. A child growing up in a family
and a thriving and vibrant culture.
that encourages creativity, in a culture that values
creativity, with teachers who support creativity, has We hope that this report will inspire a new dialogue on
excellent chances of fulfilling his or her creative the role of play and creativity in developing an inclusive
potentials’. and dynamic society, which recognizes the potential of the
Runco, 2013 creative mindset embedded in every child.
The LEGO Foundation

June 2013
Cultures of Creativity 4 Preface

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Humans gained a huge evolutionary advantage when we
This report argues that societies often fail to properly developed ‘cultural memory systems’ such as writing
nurture and sustain the cultures of creativity which are and drawing, giving us a way to record, share, and
vital to their future. Young children arrive at school with a manipulate ideas. Cultures can be seen as huge net-
creative mindset, but this is often eroded or even erased works of individuals drawing upon and interacting with
by conventional educational practices. We are failing our the vast amount of material in these ‘external storage
children if we do not recognise the crucial role of playing, systems’ of books, films, and archives.
making and sharing in the development of both the indivi-
dual human being, and the innovative society. The internet is the most extraordinary of these external
storage systems, offering access to a vast array of
Cultures do not emerge passively, or at random. Cultures information, text and audio-visual material, and giving
develop out of a practice of people doing things together, people a platform to share and exchange ideas, and to
because of a collective need or a shared passion. It is com- collaborate on projects together.
mon to think of culture as something abstract, perhaps
created through initiatives at a national or international Creativity arises not exclusively in individuals, or in
level. But cultures really develop through the opposite culture, but in the interaction between the two. Both
kind of process — when people find ways to play, make, sides are important: the imaginative individual, who
and share together, and to negotiate differences to create originates new ideas, and the stimulating, supportive
shared meanings. culture which both inspires those ideas and helps them
to flourish.
This Executive Summary covers four key themes: cultures
of creativity; a model of culture; the creative mindset; Culture can act as a kind of ‘scaffolding’ for ideas,
and bridging cultures. making them stable and manipulable, and tying them
down in a shared language so that other people can
CULTURES OF CREATIVITY appreciate, use or change them.
Cultures are the context in which creativity occurs.
They give shape to creative activity, and the expecta-
tions of those who encounter it. Cultures can be very
different — they are the diverse colours and flavours
of human life which make our existence so interesting.
Cultures are a shared set of understandings, meanings

and values. They come in different forms and sizes.
It is common to speak of cultures within national
borders. But cultures can also describe groupings of
people with — for example — a shared religion, or
generation, or workplace, or enthusiasm. Cultures are
not separate islands — we might be members of several,
and they often overlap.
This study finds that although it is common to speak

of ‘cultural differences’, human cultures are more
characterised by their similarities than their diffe-
rences. We have seen that creativity is generally con
sidered to be of high value in all cultures — even those
which, because of conflicting pressures, do not always
support its development in practice.
Cultures of Creativity 5 Executive summary

A MODEL OF CULTURE These four dimensions are driven by playing, sharing,
As a tool for understanding creative cultures, we present making and thinking — the active processes through
a model adapted from one by Anne Scott Sørensen et al which people learn and form meanings together.
(2010). The model shows culture both as the already-
existing site within which people are creative, and The model draws our attention to the key aspects of a
simultaneously as the ‘live’ space which influences, thriving creative culture, and so can be used to organise
and is influenced by, their creativity. ideas and plans for developing that culture.
The model reminds us that culture is not (only) about THE CREATIVE MINDSET
heritage, but is about the lived here-and-now, which The creative mindset is an attitude to the world
we continually make and remake, together. characterised by curiosity, questions, and a desire to
play, make and share, which children possess in their
early years, but which is often tragically lost in the
cultures of schools and workplaces. Sustaining this
delicate creative mindset is a considerable challenge
in any culture.
HAVING
Environments
Materials Creativity should be actively encouraged, praised and
Media SHARING rewarded, in homes and schools. Adults can play a key
DOING role in modelling everyday creative behaviour — the
Activities particular activity is not as important as the fact that
Relationships
MAKING Practices an adult can be seen engaged in a creative enterprise.
CULTURE
Building meanings, Modelling of playful behaviour is also very important.
developing
KNOWING community PLAYING
Knowledge
Experiences Experts can play a useful role, but expertise is less
Meaning powerful than a learner’s own desire to learn. When a
BEING child is curious and motivated, with a strong sense of
THINKING
Identities
Traditions self-efficacy — the belief in their own ability to suc-
Roles
ceed in difficult circumstances — they can learn from
peers, and from experience.
There is one place of learning which does foster crea

tive, risk-taking, collaborative activities: kinder
garten. The notion of the ‘lifelong kindergarten’ offers
Fig. 1: A model of culture (adapted from Sørensen et al., 2010)
the possibility of a space where everyone can tinker,
experiment, and play. Whilst doing so, they learn
Culture is therefore a system through which people about collaboration, and the creative process.
build meanings, and develop community, through the
dimensions of having, doing, being and knowing. The Therefore, in order to develop as creative thinkers,
model shows that the creative mindset is supported children — and adults — need opportunities to make
when there are stimulating environments and resources things. They also need stimulating environments to do
(having), when there is a lot of inspirational activity this in, and engaging tools and materials to do this
and the engaging support of peers and mentors with. Because older children and adults generally do
(doing), when there is an ethos which supports the not want to use the same materials as young children,
passions of makers (being), and where there is a there is a challenge to produce fruitful tools and
solid body of expertise and knowledge, and support materials for older people which still embody the
for learning (knowing). values of playing, making and sharing.

To sustain the creative mindset, within any culture,
we need a ‘lifelong kindergarten’ spirit, characterised
by as many opportunities as possible for playing,
making and sharing. This must involve stimulating
environments, and support from leaders, role models,
and peers.
We must preserve the delightful diversity of cultures

in our world, of course, but infuse them more with
the experimental, risk-taking spirit, and the values
of playing, making and sharing. It must embrace
platforms and languages that enable sharing and ex
change. These are crucial because they are the cru-
cibles for new understanding and co-created meaning.
BRIDGING CULTURES
To build bridges between cultures, people need a com-
mon language through which they can develop shared
meanings. The bridge-building process is not about
ignoring differences, but is more about channelling
and supporting conversations.
To have fruitful conversations, a common language is

needed. As well as spoken languages and their writ-
ten counterparts, there are non-verbal systems which
offer a kind of internationally shareable language,
such as musical notation, maps, and the LEGO System.
Connected cultures may only have certain things in

common, but these shared elements of resources,
activities, identity or knowledge — in other words,
‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’ or ‘knowing’ — can be used
to ignite a creative conversation.
Through the processes of playing, making and sharing,

we explore the limits of our own existence. We are
able to make our individual private worlds public, and
by exchanging ideas and meanings, we create the fuel
for social innovation.

1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the relationship between
individual creativity and creative cultures.
Creativity is often thought of in individual terms. We can think of particular figures,

such as Leonardo da Vinci, Virginia Woolf, Ai Weiwei, or Steve Jobs, who are
thought to have possessed so much creativity that they were able to transform the
world around them. And we can buy books which tell us how to become ‘more
creative’ and therefore change our own lives. Certainly, individual creativity can be
nurtured, supported, and developed, as we have seen in previous reports from the
LEGO Learning Institute. But we can be equally sure that creativity does not flourish
in a vacuum.
Culture is the soil in which the flowers of creativity grow;and rediscovered techniques; plus support and encourage-
and on top of that, conversations, collaborations and net- ment of the artists and architects, who were not micro
works are the fertiliser which gives a great boost to crea- managed, but knew that the city leaders were behind
tive processes. Even apparently single-authored ideas and them, and were watchfully interested, and wanted them
innovations are typically built on principles established byto do great things. These cultural forces combined to
others, and are then sharpened and improved through sha- create a very powerful environment in which creativity
ring and dialogue. could grow. Of course, it took brilliant individuals. But
many brilliant individuals, in the wrong places at the wrong
A striking example is presented by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi times, have not achieved the same results. It was the
(1997: 32-36), who notes that during a short period of combination of individual imagination and skill, plus the
time, 1400—1425, in Florence, Italy — a thriving but (in several dimensions of the highly fertile environment,
today’s terms) reasonably small which enabled such memorable
town — a number of art works and results. As Csikszentmihalyi says:
buildings were produced which ‘It is because of this inseparable
not only seemed impressive Cultures themselves are made, by connection that creativity must,
at the time, but which are still in the last analysis, be seen not
definition. Any culture is the product
regarded as some of the finest as something happening within
and most influential achieve of human creativity, of one sort or a person but in the relationships
ments of Western art and
another. So then, any new creative act within a system’ (1997: 36).
architecture, ever, 600 years
later. These include the is built and appears within the context THE EVOLUTION OF
CREATIVE HUMANS AND
Branacci Chapel fresco cycle of a particular culture.
by Masaccio, sculptures by Do- HUMAN CULTURES
natello, the enormous dome Cultures themselves are made,
of the cathedral Santa Maria by definition. Any culture is the
del Fiore engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi, and many product of human creativity, of one sort or another. So
others. However you look at it, the range and num- then, any new creative act is built and appears within the
ber of these masterpieces, produced over a couple context of a particular culture (or perhaps a fusion of cul-
of decades in one small place, is astonishing. But if we tures). The ingredients for creativity include materials,
think of creativity only in individual terms, it is really tools, ideas from a culture, and a creative mindset. This
inexplicable. Was there something in the water? Or one is not new. The neuroscientist and anthropologist Merlin
inspirational leader whose charismatic creativity was so Donald has shown that humans developed the ability to
incredibly powerful that it could somehow be beamed into make tools almost two million years ago. In particular,
everyone else? they worked out that what you really needed was the
‘master toolkit’ — tools that can make other tools. (As he
CREATIVITY: explains in his essay, this meant using the sharpest and
BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND CULTURES hardest materials, flint and obsidian, to make other tools
Although talented and imaginative individuals were cen- from materials such as wood, hide, and bone: ‘diggers,
tral to the Florentine achievement, the explanation of spears, tethers, simple clothing, and eventually, shelters
why there was such an incredible flourishing of creativity and boats’ (Donald, 2013). The idea of the ‘master toolkit’
in this one place, in a short space of time, is unsurprisingly remains attractive today — as seen, for instance, in the
broader and more cultural. Csikszentmihalyi suggests excitement about a 3D printer which can ‘print itself’).
that a combination of social, cultural and economic
factors came together in a ‘perfect storm’ of innovative The ability to make things is central to human develop
potential. This involved a new-found prosperity; plus ment. Donald states that ‘the most ancient defining
leadership from authorities who made a decision to make characteristic of the human mind is the ability to make
the city beautiful and distinctive; plus knowledge — new things with other made things’, and this forms the basis
Cultures of Creativity 9 Introduction

of our ability to create meanings, communicate, and build have pens, and books, and the internet. The individual
bridges. This continues to be true: creative human thought working memory may be relatively weak, but our cultural
producing things is still central to our lives and cultures, symbolic storage systems are strong. Once thoughts are
whether the ‘things’ are trains, clothing, power stations, put into ‘external storage’ (such as writing, a diagram, or
meals, cities, music, writing, or software. Use of tools led a model) they can be shared, developed and worked on.
to the development of the ‘mimetic imagination’ — the
unique human ability to rehearse and refine skills. We can We can arrange ideas in the external memory field, where
imagine an ideal outcome, and then develop our perfor- they can be examined and subjected to classification,
mance over multiple attempts. This, Donald notes, is the comparison, and experimentation, just as physical
basis of fantasy play, ‘which entails imagining a virtual objects can in a laboratory. In this way, externally display-
world, and acting out various roles in it’. ed thoughts can be assembled into complex arguments
much more easily than they can in biological memory.
Donald’s unique contribution, however, has been the em Images displayed in this field are vivid and enduring,
phasis on the fundamental role of culture in human devel- unlike the fleeting ghosts of imagination. This enables us
opment. Evolutionary psychologists had previously tended to see them clearly, play with them, and craft them into
to emphasise the features of human physical and cogniti- finished products, to a level of refinement that is impos-
ve development, including skills and abilities; but Donald sible for an unaided brain. Thus the display characteri-
emphasises that the human mind is a ‘hybrid’ product of stics of the external memory field expand the range of
biology and culture: ‘The human mind is unlike any other mental operations available to a conscious mind.
on this planet, not because of its biology, which is not (Donald, 2001:309)
qualitatively unique, but because of its ability to generate
and assimilate culture’ (Donald, 2001: xiii). This culture Making our thoughts and ideas external, through shareable
provides the framework in which the individual develops, symbols — drawing, writing or objects — was therefore an
and is thus a wonderful set of resources as well as forming extraordinary evolutionary strategy, which means that we
a kind of envelope around that which can be imagined: are able to ‘off-load’ vital survival information, as well
as important aesthetic, ethical and cultural matter, into
The word ‘culture’ usually connotes something other what Donald calls our ‘cultural memory systems’ (2001:
than its cognitive aspect. It usually refers to a set of 12). These systems take on a certain life of their own,
shared habits, languages or customs that define a and mean that the human mind has evolved into a ‘hybrid’
population of people. It may be those things, but on a form which depends, to a significant extent, upon these
deeper level, any given culture is a gigantic cognitive ‘collective storage systems’ which now contain so much of
web, defining and constraining the parameters of our everyday reality. This argument takes on a heightened
memory, knowledge, and thought in its members, both significance in the digital age, of course, as we increa-
as individuals and as a group. singly ‘off-load’ our thoughts, and their representations
(Donald, 2001: xiv) as images and texts, into online networks — the ‘upload’
side of the equation — and we expect that we don’t need
This ‘cognitive web’ is not simply a mass of thoughts or to carry so much general knowledge in our heads because
learned, shared meanings. Crucially, it is the human ability — on the ‘download’ side — such know-how is always
to communicate and store thoughts — through innovations accessible on Wikipedia, or helpfully indexed by Google.
such as drawing and writing — which has really enabled Donald’s notion of a shared storage system prefigures the
us to evolve. The individual human brain is an incredible technological notion of ‘the cloud’, of course, but they
thing, but can become immeasurably more powerful refer to something similar, although the latter tends to be
through the use of tools which enable us to set out and massive but individualised, and often owned by corpora
review ideas. As Donald suggests, we typically cannot hold tions — a significant shift from the cultural cloud-commons
all the parts of a complex argument in mind at once, and that Donald presents.
do not tend to have extensive and precise mental refe-
rence libraries ready for instant consultation. But we do

FROM THE ESSAYS:
‘Cultures of creativity thrive wherever

there is respect and space for multiple
styles to flourish and play together,
where novices can construct their own
expertise by building from their own
experiences and knowledge-base,
and where “experts” remain open to
learning.’
(Wesch, 2013)
One thing that Donald’s work makes clear is that human Nevertheless, Hofstede offers a valuable model for thinking
life is crucially collaborative and based on shared cultures. about the composition of cultures, with the manifestations
It is not that individuals go about their business, and that of culture at different levels of depth.
collaboration and culture are perhaps pleasant layers on
top, adding character and sociability to everyday life; At the centre of a culture are values, a core set of beliefs
rather, our everyday life would not exist without that and preferences. These values are implicitly learned by
collaboration and shared culture. As Donald explains: children from an early age. Moving out from the centre
‘We may have the feeling that we do our cognitive work in are three kinds of ‘practices’ — ways in which a culture is
isolation, [but] we do our most important work as connec- manifested (Hofstede et al, 2010: 7-9)
ted members of cultural networks’ (2001: 298).
RITUALS: Collective activities, carried out for social
rather than functional purposes, such as polite greetings,
DEFINING CULTURE social and religious ceremonies
Culture, then, is a necessary context for creativity. We
have seen Merlin Donald’s suggestion that culture is ‘a HEROES: Role models (real or fictional, alive or dead)
gigantic cognitive web’ which relies on networks of who are seen to possess aspirational characteristics
individuals drawing upon and interacting with the vast
amount of material in ‘external storage’ — books, films, SYMBOLS: Words, gestures, and things that carry a
archives, exhibitions, the internet, and many other places. particular meaning within a culture
In a similar way, but with more emphasis on culture as a
shared mindset, Geert Hofstede et al (2010) define culture as This way of breaking down the elements of culture can
‘the collective programming of the mind, distinguishing the provide a useful way of describing what is important
members of one group or category of people from others’. within a culture; and it can be used to flesh out the detail
This does not mean that cultures are exclusive and wholly of what a culture is most concerned with when considering
different, but indicates that they are at least distinctive, cultures at the level of class and regional identities, or
with particular flavours and tones which mean that one different generations, each of which will have its own
culture is not the same as another. This would include values, rituals, heroes and symbols.
an orientation to learning and knowledge, which may be
more ‘top down’ (we must learn from respected experts) Culture plays a fundamental role in shaping the devel-
or more ‘bottom up’ (I can work things out for myself, and opment of young children, especially since the human
by asking or collaborating with my peers). child is born so relatively unformed. As Hayes (2000: 660)
puts it, ‘Human infants are born at an earlier stage of
Hofstede’s notion of ‘mental programming’ can seem overly development than other animals, and have to spend a
deterministic — we might instead say ‘conscious or un longer period dependent on their caretakers. This means
conscious cultural identification,’ to leave more room for that they can learn more about their surroundings, and
individual flexibility. These identifications occur at different are therefore better equipped to adapt to a wide range
levels (Hofstede et al., 2010: 18), such as national, regional, of environments’ — and that culture will make a huge
generation, class, workplace or school, and lifestyle. On impression.
the other hand, modern societies are often characterised
by disruption to the former stabilities of national or class
identities, with globalisation and a less constrained attitude
to lifestyle choices meaning that particular identifications
based on such classifications can no longer be taken for
granted (Giddens, 1991).

In terms of the relationship between culture and creativity, We began this study by posing questions such as ‘How are
Lubart and Sternberg (1998: 69) posit that ‘Creativity creativity, play, and making valued differently in different
is not in the person, or in the culture, but in the inter cultures?’. Perhaps inevitably, questions of that kind can
action between the two’. This mirrors the ‘relationships appear to set up cultures like islands (‘between cultures’,
within a system’ approach highlighted by Csikszentmihalyi ‘different cultures’), but this was not the intention.
above. Rather than suggesting that creativity is ‘nowhere’, Cultures are important, and exist, in the blurry world
it should be taken to indicate the crucial importance of human creativity and relationships. To separate out
of the imaginative individual, but also the inescapable ‘different’ cultures, in a scientific manner, is both impossible
influence of culture(s) on that individual, meaning that and undesirable. Rather, we aim to explore the relation-
creativity can be said to arise from the interaction of both. ships between creativity and culture in a way which is
rigorous but sensitive, and which accepts the delightful
CULTURES ARE NOT ISLANDS complexity and interconnectedness of human life.
There is no obvious way to draw a line around human life
in order to say ‘here is one culture’ and ‘here is a different
culture’. We can pull the lens to its widest, and say that
all human life is a culture, or focus in very closely, and talk
about the ‘culture’ of a particular classroom, or a family.
Most simply, ‘culture’ refers to a shared layer of under-

standing, and despite the common focus on ‘cultural
differences’, human beings around the world have much in
common. Research supporting this view is cited in several
of the commissioned essays. For instance, David White-
bread and Marisol Basilio offer this summary of how play is
manifested around the world:
The study of play through time and across cultures

has consistently demonstrated two characteristic fea-
tures of play in human societies.First, it is clear that
play is ubiquitous among humans, both as children and
as adults, and that children’s play is consistently
supported by adults in all societies and cultures, most
clearly in the manufacture of play equipment and
toys. Second, it emerges that play is a multi-faceted
phenomenon, with a variety of types that appear
in all societies, but that there are variations in the
prevalence and forms that the various types of play
take in different societies.
(Whitebread & Basilio, 2013)
Here, as in other cases, we find that the general experi-

ence is common to diverse cultures and places, but that
in each of those different cultures it is infused with a very
distinctive character and flavour. So the main message is
about commonalities, rather than differences, between
people — but at the same time, we can celebrate the
incredible ability of humans to do things in different ways.

2: THE CREATIVE MINDSET
This chapter discusses the creative mindset, and the ways
in which different cultures manage to support or
erode that potential.
We see that the creative mindset is delicate and rather too easily damaged, and
consider the mindfulness necessary to keep it alive.
THE CREATIVE MINDSET AND THE UNIVERSAL killing children’s motivation and creativity. Almost
POTENTIAL OF CHILDREN without exception, the five-year-olds in my mixed-age
Every child begins their journey through life with an in- classroom began their educational journey wide-eyed
credible potential: a creative mindset which approaches and excited about everything put in front of them. They
the world with curiosity, with questions, and with a desire took risks and were blissfully unconcerned about what
to play, make and share. The creative mindset is summed might happen if they made a mistake or got a wrong
up by Beth Hennessey, in her essay, as ‘a playful attitude answer. [...] Yet by the time these same students had
and a willingness to take risks’ (Hennessey, 2013). reached the age of 8 or 9, far too many of them had
become rule-bound and self-conscious. (Hennessey, 2013)
A creative mindset is about playing, making and sharing. As
Mitch Resnick suggests in his essay, these three concepts There is much agreement in the research literature that
are not just forms of activity, they are stances for engaging the creative mindset is all too easily closed down by the
with the world (Resnick, 2013). apparent demands of the educa-
Play is not simply a particular tion system. At the same time it
activity which occurs within is clear that a creative mindset
a specific bit of time during
As life goes on, if this creative mind- can be nourished and sustained,
the day, but can describe a play- set can be sustained, it enables a if we are especially mindful of its
ful attitude towards the world, supreme importance.
person to confidently get to grips with
which will infuse relationships,
judgements, and willingness to challenges in memorable ways, rich with THE CREATIVE MINDSET IS
take risks. Similarly, ‘making’ NECESSARY
ingenuity or self-expression. Although
is not just about the activity of The creative mindset is not a
creating and building, but refers the creative mindset resides within an luxury. And the creative mind-
to an attitude that the world is individual, it can be seen as one of set is not a new requirement of
constantly being built and re- the modern world — although it
built, and that there is an active
the most crucial building blocks for a can be especially valuable in our
role to be played in that building vibrant and developing culture. complex, interconnected exi-
and rebuilding. Sharing is about stence. It is this creative mind-
a capacity for connection and set which has enabled the human
collaboration — to do the playing race to survive over thousands of
and making with others, to build on other people’s ideas years — both on a day to day level, through imaginative
and to offer up one’s own work in the same spirit. approaches to providing food and shelter, and at a broader
level, through necessary solutions to dire threats affecting
The creative mindset, then, is a universal starting point, the whole population.
but is easily lost. This observation has been memorably
made by Ken Robinson, in his 2007 TED talk which has So the creative mindset has always been necessary. But
been viewed millions of times online, in which he argues today, more than ever, we have the opportunity to choose
that schools typically ‘squander’ children’s creativity and ways to develop and support this mindset depending on
talents, ‘pretty ruthlessly’ (Robinson, 2007). Children be- the future we envision. That we should ‘choose’ to do
gin school unafraid to experiment, to tinker, to get things this seems so obvious that it might barely be worth men-
wrong; but over time, they learn that mistakes are highly tioning — but in fact, we often do things to support one
stigmatised, and often associated with a kind of humilia favoured outcome which do damage to another outcome.
tion that every child would want to avoid. A strikingly For instance, being able to assess and compare the perfor
similar point is made by Beth Hennessey: mance of schools appears to be a desirable goal: the sense
of competition should drive teachers and pupils to do
I began my career as a primary school teacher and better, and parents should be able to make informed
immediately began to worry that our schools were choices about schools. However, assessment of schools
Cultures of Creativity 15 The creative mindset

typically means repeatedly testing the performance of a purposeful body. Although Western education over the
pupils; and the importance of the ‘league tables’ that past 200 years has tended to see learners in terms of their
result is likely to mean that teachers devote time to pre- brain-based skills and experience alone, there is a much
paring their pupils to do well in specific tests, rather than longer story of learners as people with skilled bodies and
focusing on nurturing particular creative talents, or icono minds in combination.
clastic thinking. The rational intention of helping the chil-
dren do better in these important, consequential tests, is Chaves suggests, in common with other contributors, that
at odds with the rational intention of supporting creative the creative mindset develops from exploration — not
thinking. just of ideas but of physical things and environments — or
rather, as is often the case, exploration of ideas through
So the choice to nurture creative mindsets remains the exploration and use of materials. And we need space
meaningful, and uncertain. Government representatives to play, to experiment, to be disorderly. His view from
from the US to Scandinavia to China speak passionately Brazil is that learning in the 21st century ‘needs what we
about the importance of creativity and the creative eco- used to find in football in Brazil: creative improvisation,
nomy, but education systems often fail to support the freedom, challenge, the union of passion and talent, [and]
flourishing of a really creative mindset. fun’. This is echoed by accounts from elsewhere.
CREATIVE MINDSETS WITHIN CULTURES From the US, Beth Hennessey sets out the challenges of
The individual person’s creative mindset develops, inevi- preserving a creative mindset in the face of classroom
tably, within culture; but of course this culture was built factors which tend to destroy this kind of intrinsic
through the collective efforts of individual people, and so motivation: ‘expected reward, expected evaluation,
this system is in a permanent loop. People shape culture, competition, surveillance and time limits’ (Hennessey,
and culture shapes people. 2013). Central to this is her idea that students should
feel like ‘agents’ rather than ‘pawns’ — determining their
Although cultures and approaches to child development own activities and learning, rather than having learning
may vary considerably, the creative mindset that children ‘done to’ them. This is not — or at least, not simply —
begin with appears to be much the same around the world. ‘do whatever you want’, but a process where learners are
Every child has the potential to flourish, to be inventive, supported to reflect upon their learning, and to monitor
to make great new things. Conversely, the power of social their own progress. This therefore encourages a thought-
norms and cultural values is strong — and the influence of ful, creative approach to fostering one’s own creativity.
parental preferences and choices cannot be overstated. As
Eduardo Chaves notes in his essay — and as noted above From China, Keang-ieng Vong records that Chinese schools
— human children ‘are all born, as it were, prematurely often see creativity as being primarily of significance in
and ill-equipped to live’, lacking the most basic skills for relation to children’s artwork, rather than across the
survival (Chaves, 2013). We depend on those around us, curriculum (Vong, 2013). Creative play is not perceived as
and so the universal potential of the human child is almost being central to learning, and the Chinese noun meaning
immediately, from birth, led down a path shaped by play, you xi, describes activity which for adults would be
culture. the opposite of learning (a situation not especially different
to that in many Western schools, of course, for children
We have a capacity and desire to learn, and so the young above kindergarten age, or in adult business life, which is
child hungrily absorbs all of these cultural inputs, alongsi- rarely truly playful). Nonetheless, Vong notes a changing
de the more general skills such as how to walk. As the emphasis which might support the development of creative
child gets older, as Chaves suggests, the creative mindset mindsets, based in an approach to creativity as ‘novel ideas
develops within their whole-body experience of the world. to solve everyday problems’, and building on the Chinese
We are not merely ‘thinking machines’, but have the plea- definition of creativity which we can paraphrase as ‘the
sure and joy of running, dancing and making things within power to infuse any event or object with new ideas’.

We might also expect to see, over time, a trickle-down time children are so devoted to fitting in with their friends
effect from China’s booming creative industries. In the that individual ideas are rarely expressed). The importance
2011 book How Creativity is Changing China, Li Wuwei of individuality does not mean that more collectivist
writes: cultures cannot foster creativity, Runco notes: after
all, the most collectivist society still needs imaginative
By developing creative industries, individual creativity solutions to social problems, and new ways to promote
is nurtured. Moreover, creative industries are beneficial harmony. He also notes that individualistic cultures are
in maintaining and protecting historical and cultural often quick to relegate play after children have passed a
heritage, improving cultural capital, and fostering certain age. Strong individualism can tend to drive out the
communities. This leads to the improvement of the laid-back atmosphere which can make everyday life more
cultural assets of cities, the establishment of city brands playful.
and identity, the promotion of the creative economy,
and overall economic and social development. It is in Mindfulness is also very important for those parents and
this context that creativity is changing China. teachers who wish to encourage creativity. Although it
(Wuwei, 2011) sounds ‘obvious’ that original thinking should be embraced
and encouraged, creativity is often — by definition —
Here the individual creative mindset is seen as the root of unexpected, and so can be casually put down by adults
a broader cultural transformation, with — interestingly — because it happens to be surprising or inconvenient at the
the creative industries identified as a driving force, both moment when it is manifested. Adults should also be mind-
in terms of what they can give (inspiration to a creative ful of the ways in which they ‘model’ creative activity —
society) and what they will require (employees adept at which is important not simply as a way of demonstrating
creative thinking). creative techniques, but more generally to highlight the
values and pleasures of creativity within everyday life.
Alongside the formally supported creative industries, China
has seen the rise of ‘maker culture’, as outlined by Francois As HB Ebrahim notes in her contribution from South Africa,
Grey in his essay (Grey, 2013). Here we see a flourishing play is the starting-point for children in developing skills
of hacker spaces in major cities — just the kind of expe- of exploring, thinking, and making (Ebrahim, 2013).
rimental, tinkering environment that is likely to nourish Through play activities which they have initiated themselves,
creative mindsets. Indeed, Grey’s evidence suggests that children ‘become powerful and take control of the
the government is shifting some focus away from the more situations [that] they have prioritised’. In particular,
top-down ‘creative industries’ approach — a kind of ‘push’ though, she highlights the social dimension of play:
approach to innovation, where the government hopes that
sheer investment will lead to some returns — and is put- Play fosters creativity in an ubuntu sense [to do with
ting money also into the more participatory hacker spaces, relationships and interconnectedness], and promotes
representing more of a ‘pull’ approach, where enthusiasts the idea of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (a person is only
and resources are brought into a convivial environment and a person through other people). These African concepts
encouraged to experiment. of human solidarity afford opportunities for children to
act as a collective to promote or disrupt ideas and/or
BEING MINDFUL use objects in meaningful and novel ways.
This self-aware approach to one’s own development, (Ebrahim, 2013)
which can be called ‘mindfulness’, is also the ultimate
point of Mark Runco’s contribution (Runco, 2013). The The creative mindset is cultivated through playing,
creative mindset, he suggests, is likely to flourish when making and sharing, which brings us from the individual to
individuality is strongly supported — which can be a par- the group level — the focus of chapter three.
ticular challenge in cultures where collective values are
stronger than individual ones (and is, he says, always a
challenge in the upper primary school years, around which

3: PLAYING, MAKING, SHARING
In this chapter we will consider three key elements of creativity
which connect the private and public worlds:
playing, making, and sharing.
Other elements of creativity, such as imagination and ingenuity, operate initially at

the individual level, although they may become part of collaborative activities. But
playing and making are frequently social, and sharing is necessarily so. They are
each kinds of activities which act as shuttlecars between private, individual worlds
and a broader cultural consciousness. Even the shy and introverted child finds
that they are carried, through the common activities of playing and making, into a
collaborative and shared experience.
PLAYING individualistic play leads, of course, into more social and
Playing, making and sharing are, of course, interconnec collaborative play, and again this can develop into the
ted, and are often dimensions of the same activity, but kinds of adult creativity that culture requires for its own
here we will briefly consider each in turn. As Merlin evolution. Of those children who ‘learn how to cooperate
Donald explains in his essay, play has its roots way back in with and organize others to carry out projects together,’
human evolution, as an important dimension of the way in Merlin Donald says, some ‘will progress to the more ab-
which humans have rehearsed, and thereby honed, their stract and socially connected stage that we know as entre-
creative skills (Donald, 2013). ‘This is what our distant preneurship’. But it all begins with early childhood play:
ancestors had to do to master tools. [...] This same basic ‘The germ of creativity must be stimulated early, so that
mental apparatus is the foundation of fantasy play, which the imagination is given full rein to grow to its full poten-
entails imagining a virtual world, and acting out various tial, especially in those crucial preschool years’.
roles in it’. Play is therefore about developing vital capa-
cities, serving a serious function, but of course the activity MAKING
does not seem dull or serious to the player. As Phillippe Playing is strongly associated with making, and again we
Rochat says in his contribution, play is always about ‘gra- can see the roots of this in Merlin Donald’s evolutionary
tuitous exploration and representation’ and involves ‘the account, which shows that making things is a central part
freedom to explore and to deviate, the freedom to test of the universal interest of children in playing. Creative
possibilities’ (Rochat, 2013). Unlike the ‘ordinary aware- play is enjoyable, and intrinsically motivated — done for
ness’ of everyday life, play concerns ‘the need to explore its own sake, without need for incentive or instruction —
the limits of our own existence: the limits of our strength, but serves a serious purpose.
courage, adversity, destiny, production, and agency’. The
notion of play creates a space for extraordinary activity: Human beings have existed in a complex creative
relationship with tools for millions of years. [...] When
Through play, we do feel alive in a way that is different viewed in this broad historical framework, it is obviously
from the feeling of being alive in ordinary life. It is a the most natural thing in the world for human children
feeling that is open ended. It is a creative mindset by to play with simple tools to make things. In doing so,
definition, because it is awareness of possibilities and they are engaging the most ancient and unique features
of surprise outcomes: winning, losing, succeeding, of our special human mentality.
resolving, affecting, surviving or failing to achieve. [...] (Donald, 2013)
This is a source of an intrinsic pleasure, the pleasure of
feeling more intensely alive than in ordinary life. It is When making things, whether playful scenarios or card
driven by the deep pleasure of discovering new limits and board spaceships, children are at the same time ‘engaging
new possibilities for self or for the group of affiliates. in the serious business of building the cognitive platform
(Rochat, 2013) for their future skills’:
Play is necessary for the development of imagination and They are not only assembling essential neural architec
agency in all children, then, but also is at the base of the tures in their young brains, but also encouraging the
highest of human achievements. Merlin Donald asserts development of their creative capacities, as well as
that fantasy play ‘is at the root of both art and science’ their proficiency at constructive self-criticism. These
(Donald, 2013). The ability to put together sounds and abilities are essential, and their future as learners
melodies to make a symphony — or to attack traditional depends upon it.
approaches to sound and melody to make a revolutionary (Donald, 2013)
new form of symphony — or to imagine the thousands of
complex processes required to get a human onto the moon This view is supported by the principle of constructionism,
— or to think about the nature of matter and reality to developed by Seymour Papert. This is the idea that we build
develop advances in quantum physics — all have their ro- knowledge through making things, or ‘learning by making’.
ots in the fantasy play of childhood. Children’s early, more It is based, in turn, on the notion of constructivism, from
Cultures of Creativity 19 Playing, making, sharing

Jean Piaget, which suggests that the world we engage with They are well aware that their lives are supported by
is actively constructed in our minds, and so knowledge is the community that they are contributing to, based on
always a reconstruction of reality, rather than a copy or a the shared meaning that they have created, based on
mirror. Constructionism takes this a step further by high- the relationships that they have created, based on the
lighting the power of really making things, as a way of both products they have created.
clarifying and communicating ideas (Papert & Harel, 1991). (Miyata, 2013)
As Mitch Resnick puts it in his essay:
Throughout human history, life has been characterised
Papert argued that the activity of making things provides by this kind of direct sharing within communities, Miyata
a rich context for learning. It doesn’t really matter what notes, but the impact of globalisation in recent decades
you are making; you might be building a sand castle, means that many goods and services which we consume
writing a poem, cooking a new recipe, or programming are produced in far away places.
an interactive robot. What’s important is that you are
making something that is meaningful to yourself or We have designed our technology so that we can live a
others around you. comfortable and convenient life, but in the process we
(Resnick, 2013) have lost the real sense of community in which we all
support ourselves creatively.
Indeed, making can be a process which ‘grounds’ a person (Miyata, 2013)
in the world as an active participant. As David Gauntlett
argues in Making is Connecting (2011), the practice of Whilst it might be difficult or undesirable to turn back the
making things enhances people’s sense of engagement clock on these kinds of globalisation, we may need to find
with their culture, their environment, and other people. other opportunities for sharing, to increase meaningful per-
Gauntlett’s research suggests that this applies equally to son-to-person exchange and human connection. An example
online and offline creativity. Where the available tools and cited by Miyata is the World Museum Project, an online net-
resources enable people to give shape to their own realities, work where children can connect and collaborate.
and meaning to their own environments, then they are
likely to be happier, healthier, and feel more empowered They started to create meanings that they could share,
to take control in other aspects of their lives. based on their relationship. Thus, the act of creating
community is grounded on the act of creating meaning,
SHARING which in turn is grounded on the act of creating relation
As we have said, playing, making and sharing are all inter ships, which in turn is grounded on the act of creating
twined. The playing and making activities discussed above products.
are frequently social, and so involve the sharing of mate (Miyata, 2013)
rials, ideas, and a sense of human connection.
Doing things together is good because it can lead to better
But sharing is significant in its own right — because sharing outputs, but just as importantly because it builds
is the act of building personal connections with others meaningful social relationships. Returning to the notion of
through what is essentially personal disclosure, whether constructionism, mentioned above, Gerhard Fischer writes
of ideas, experiences or preferences. Sharing is meaning- in his contribution:
ful because I share not just a song or model or story, but
something of myself. This is why platforms for sharing and Constructionism [...] asserts that working and learning is
exchange are important, because they are places where an active process. Providing all citizens with the means
human thoughts become intertwined. to become co-creators of new ideas, knowledge, and
products in personally meaningful activities presents
An awareness of the shared nature of cultural endeavours is one of the most exciting innovations and transfor-
the special feature identified by Yoshiro Miyata in his discus- ma tions with profound implications for fostering and
sion of a visit to a community in northern Thailand, where nurturing cultures of creativity.
the way of life was primarily local and self-sufficient: (Fischer, 2013)

FROM THE ESSAYS:
‘To foster, nurture, and support creative

designer mindsets, learning cannot be
restricted to finding knowledge that
is “out there”. […] socio-technical
environments are needed that
cultivate the development of a
“designer mindset” by creating
habits and tools that help people
become empowered and willing to
actively contribute to the design of
their lives and communities.’
(Fischer, 2013)
He suggests that this can be done with physical construction In the South African case outlined by Ebrahim — and no
systems, such as LEGO, or digital platforms where creators doubt elsewhere — this is often children’s parents, who
can provide feedback on each others’ work, leading to may expect education to have an ‘instructional’ approach,
‘distributed constructionism’, where the pleasure, speed even though evidence suggests that young children should
and diversity of making-together activities is enhanced by be seen as ‘people getting to know their world in the
broad, accessible networks. here and now of childhood’, and that adults should ‘make
efforts to learn from them and support them in their
THE COLLECTIVE CONTEXT meaning making’. This approach emphasises the need for
As we shift our focus from the individual level to the group children to explore, experiment, and ‘share possibilities’,
level, it is worth noting that this takes different forms. in a safe and relaxed environment.
On the one hand there is the collective activity itself —
the thing that you are doing. But also, and perhaps more MAKING PLAY, MAKING CULTURE
importantly, there is the collective context — the platform The ways in which children are able to collectively
or space within which the activity occurs, which is likely produce shared play activities, without formal leader
to include a mix of supportive, neutral, and not-supportive ship, instructions or agenda, is perhaps a metaphor for the
elements. Many of our expert contributors highlighted the process through which ‘culture’ in general is produced.
crucial importance of this context. Michael Wesch, for
instance, concludes that: In his contribution, Artin Göncü discusses his thesis that
children’s social imaginative play stems from their desire
Cultures of creativity thrive wherever there is respect to make sense of experiences in collaboration with others
and space for multiple styles to flourish and play (Göncü, 2013). His research has documented the process
together, where novices can construct their own exper- through which this occurs:
tise by building from their own experiences and know-
ledge-base, and where “experts” remain open to learning. When children come together, they first begin to iden-
(Wesch, 2013) tify a play idea that is meaningful for all the children
involved. Proposals made for joint play that are found
In the previous chapter we saw that HB Ebrahim cited the idiosyncratic are often given up. Once children agree
South African concept, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (a on a play proposal, they then engage in negotiations
person is only a person through other people) (Ebrahim, attempting to discover the commonalities amongst their
2013). She illustrates this with an example where older experiences. These negotiations occur in a free-flowing
and younger children collaborate — a situation where the manner, allowing children to agree on the general script
‘experts’ remain open to learning: of their play… Identification of a shared play script
allows the flexible negotiation of differences and even
In my work in rural KwaZulu-Natal, young children in to tolerate them for as long as the desire to hold the
open-air preschools were afforded opportunities for play ensemble together remains intact.
with older children (buddies). This kind of support allowed (Göncü, 2013)
for apprenticeship behaviour and social learning from
a grouping other than their peers and adults... When In effect, children manage to find a way to ‘muddle
young children play in a group they have opportunities to through’ and to produce a shared experience which makes
develop scripts to suit specific aims, become aware of sense to the participants, even though they are drawing
different perspectives, allocate or be allocated resources upon different sets of experiences and understandings.
and deal with multiple demands. When I say “let’s play space monsters!”, your half-dozen
(Ebrahim, 2013) ideas about what space monsters are like, what they do,
and why they are exciting or scary, might be completely
But ‘a person is only a person through other people’ is different from my set of space monster ideas, but as long
double-edged, because the important community of ‘other as we can find a space of mutual compatibility, even with
people’ can be conservative and suppress development. the odd clash, we can keep going.

Göncü notes that what is striking here is that this social This model also allows for cultures to change over time,
play process conveys the child’s imaginative world from in ways that are shaped and constrained by their norms
private to public, and it becomes part of a shared con- and ethos. Some cultures, for instance, might take it for
struction — a collaborative project to build meaning and granted that from time to time they can be disrupted by
understanding (Göncü, 2013). Of course, there is no for- radical new ideas, and that this is part of the culture’s
mal process through which this delicate negotiation occurs natural development; other cultures may be more closed,
— it is never discussed, never taught: it just happens. It and would implicitly assume that such disruptive moves
is an improvised process, where children try to find what would naturally be blocked. In times of transition, it is
works, and what is acceptable, without wholly disrup- less clear what is or is not acceptable, and there is no
ting the ongoing play experience. The play proceeds with clear way to ‘decide’ upon the ‘correct’ answer: think, for
implicit, more often than explicit, indications of agree- example, of China’s response to the artist Ai Weiwei, who
ment or disagreement with each other’s ideas, and with is both celebrated as a symbol of Chinese innovation and
the continuous possibility of revision and change ‘on the creativity, and harassed and suppressed as an intolerable
fly’. Göncü says: critical force.
Based on these findings, I am claiming that imaginative CULTURES ARE SYSTEMS

play is a spontaneous activity through which children Cultures can be understood as systems. This does not
express to the world of peers (and sometimes to mean that they can be reduced to simple sets of rules, or
[adults]) those topics that they want to work on. In this understood in simple terms. The point of systems theory
sense, imaginative play can be seen as a curriculum that is that systems are complex, and a reductionist approach
children offer for collaboration. Also, children offer — focusing on parts of the system separately, rather than
their curriculum using a flexible language that allows looking at the whole — merely leads to lack of understan-
its creative transformations in order for it to become ding. The idea of using a simple lens to understand one
communicable, fun, and shared. ‘bit’ of the system can be attractive, but ultimately comes
(Göncü, 2013) at the expense of a broader understanding.
This is a fascinating insight into how play works, but it Cultures are systems through which we create shared
also offers a model for how culture is created and devel- meanings. This sounds like a pleasant process, but has
oped: willing parties offer sets of ‘topics that they want substantial implications. Merlin Donald (2001) notes that
to work on’ — a ‘curriculum’ for collaboration — and then a culture is a system which frames how we see everything,
an improvised process of muddling-through and tacit so some things are rendered thinkable and may become
agreements develops into a kind of consensus regarding more central, whilst other things become more or less
the typical content of the system, its boundaries, and its invisible or literally inconceivable to us. So at the broad
tolerance to challenges. level, culture is the terrain in which we operate, and at
the close-up level is the knitting together of ideas, know-
This can explain how something we call ‘culture’ is put ledge, feelings and insights, to remake part of the terrain.
together and recognised: any number of cultural arte-
facts and ideas are proposed by actors within the system If we think about cultures of creativity, then creativity
(innovators, artists, critics, or anyone with something to within a culture means creativity within a kind of system.
contribute), but it is through an improvised process of What this means for creativity is that it necessarily
muddling-through and tacit agreements that we even- responds to, and is framed by, elements of the system. So
tually reach some kind of consensus about the core and creativity within a culture is likely to convey or be shaped
marginal elements of the culture. This conversation about by the values of that culture (such as emphasis on individual
the nature and content of culture goes on, continuously, or collective priorities), approaches to learning and sharing
across time. (more public or more private), aesthetic expectations
(such as use of space and materials), and other factors.

The systems view of culture has its roots in — amongst The model suggests that culture has four essential dimen-
other places — the work of Emile Durkheim (1858—1917), sions, ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’, and ‘knowing’. These are
one of the ‘founding fathers’ of sociology. Durkheim all parts of culture, continuously in play together, and so
saw that cultures established sets of expectations, and should not be considered separately. ‘Having’ and ‘know-
frames of understanding, which took on a stable existen- ing’ could be seen more as the bedrock of a culture, with
ce of their own, separate from individual moods or pre- ‘doing’ and ‘being’ representing the dynamic human en-
ferences (Durkheim, 1938 [1895], 2002 [1897]). Although gagements that give it life — although really, ‘having’ and
created through the collective will of individuals, cultures ‘knowing’ are active processes too, and ‘doing’ and ‘being’
come to be relatively independent of individual desires, have some relatively steady bedrock aspects.
and yet still describe the envelope of reality for the
population. HAVING is about the resources which a culture presents
us with, including artefacts, materials, tools, media, and
This model presented a problem in that social change environments. Where we have access and permission
would not appear to be possible, except perhaps at a very to engage with or inhabit these things, we can experi-
slow, evolutionary pace. The sociologist Anthony Giddens ence and develop culture. This typically involves some
solved this (most notably in The Constitution of Society, form of appropriation — taking things and re-using or
1984) with his model of ‘structuration’, which suggests re-thinking them for new purposes.
that the macro level of culture and social structure does
exist, but is only reproduced through repetition of acts DOING is about the activities, relationships and prac-
and expectations at the micro level, by individual people, tices which bring a culture to life. These activities can
and therefore can change when people choose to disregard be physical, social, or symbolic. They may be mediated
the established order and do things differently. This model through tool-use (as when making a cake, or building
offers, in system terms, a kind of feedback loop, enabling a tower), or take the form of enactments (such as
cultures to develop, change and adapt. pretend or role play). Without this continuous flow of
‘doing’ — human activity and meaning-making — any
Then we can recall the model of creativity as a system culture would collapse.
offered by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (see Chapter 1), where
the contribution of a creative individual must be under BEING is about the identities of individuals and groups,
stood in relation to the broader culture, and the specific and their shared traditions, habits and states of mind.
supports and networks which that contribution benefits It is therefore about both collective identity and collec
from. The feedback loop described above means also that tive aspiration. It is the “defining” and emotional side
the individual contribution feeds, eventually and incre- of the continuity that binds a culture together.
mentally, back into the whole.
KNOWING is about the culture’s ways of making sense of
A DYNAMIC MODEL FOR CULTURES OF things. It is the knowledge, experiences and meanings
CREATIVITY that undergird a culture — the ‘canon’ of recognised
To better understand cultures of creativity, and as a tool for creations that form its basis — as well as the here-and-
thinking about creative cultures, we have adapted a model now consciousness and conversations that sustain a
of culture which was proposed by Anne Scott Sørensen et culture.
al (2010), which itself drew upon a number of previous
models or perspectives on culture. The model recognises At the centre of the model we can see that culture is about
that culture always signifies both a context for experiences, building meanings, and developing community — which
and actual experiences. So on the one hand, culture is a would include learning together. These are the central
given — the culture, largely made by others, which you parts of culture which can only be understood through the
inhabit — and on the other hand, culture is being created combination of all four dimensions: having, doing, being
and recreated, right now, through individual and social and knowing.
meaning-making and experiences, including your own.

FIG. 2: A MODEL OF CULTURE (ADAPTED FROM SØRENSEN ET AL., 2010)
HAVING
Environments
Materials
Media
DOING
Activities
Relationships
Practices
CULTURE
Building meanings,
developing
KNOWING community
Knowledge
Experiences
Meaning
BEING
Identities
Traditions
Roles

As we have seen above, culture is a system which envelops first of all we must acknowledge that thinking is clearly
both the ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ levels — it contains the shared a part of playing, making and sharing. But its particular
knowledge and practices which make up the general sense of meaning here is in the link between knowing (knowledge
a ‘culture’, as well as the individual everyday activities which and experience) and being (identity and selfhood): it is
are both influenced by the culture and which can, in turn and about the judgements made about how creativity finds its
over time, influence and shape its general character. place in a culture, and how to present playing, making and
sharing within a cultural context. The experience of being
The having-doing-being-knowing model therefore applies within a culture leads to different ways of evluating ideas,
to the general (macro) level of a culture, as well as to experiences and creative products. For instance, Thomas
individual (micro) experience within a culture. Indeed, Wolbers in his essay writes:
it shows the ways in which the two are connected — the
general shape of a culture in terms of having, doing, being There is quite some evidence that Chinese culture
and knowing, influences how individuals live their lives in values usefulness more than novelty, whereas
terms of having, doing, being and knowing. These every Western culture values novelty more than usefulness.
day practices reproduce the values and practices of the To the extent that culturally divergent social norms
general culture, but in turn — when done differently — may are salient, individuals with an Eastern background
contribute to change within that culture. may be more concerned with usefulness than originality
and engage different implicit or explicit standards to
FOUR KEY PROCESSES downplay or elaborate ideas and insights than their
The above model also includes four key processes which counterparts with a Western background.
arise in the intersections of the having-doing-being- (Wolbers, 2013)
knowing dimensions. (These do not appear in the model
by Sørensen et al, 2010; we have added them). It is the thinking about presentation, modification and
judgement which play a significant role in how the
PLAYING — which connects being (identity and processes of playing, making and sharing are manifested
selfhood) with doing (creative action) in a culture.
MAKING — which connects doing (creative action) USING THE MODEL

with having (available materials) The model is powerful as it helps us to focus on ways to
maximise creative opportunities within a culture, both at
SHARING — which connects having (things to share) the level of what individuals can do, and at the broader
with knowing (knowledge and experience) level of what schools, government, businesses and other
organisations can do. It draws our attention to the key
THINKING — which connects knowing (knowledge aspects of a thriving creative community, and so can be
and experience) with being (identity and selfhood) used to organise ideas and plans for developing that cult
ure, and the creative mindsets that will build the culture.
Of course, a representational diagram of this kind should Each of the dimensions is fuel for the fire of creative
not be read too strictly; for instance, sharing and thinking culture in the centre, and the playing, making, sharing and
are clearly active processes, and so are part of ‘doing’, thinking which brings that to life. If we consider each in turn:
even though they do not seem to be part of ‘doing’ in the
diagram. This is because, as noted above, all these dimen- The HAVING dimension leads us to consider the qua-
sions of culture are overlapping and simultaneous, and lity of the materials and environments that we use or
are only pulled out as distinct aspects here so that we can in-habit. We might ask: are these open and inspiring, or
discuss them in a structured manner. do they close down or suppress creative ideas?
We outlined playing, making and sharing earlier in this The DOING dimension indicates the vitality of the
chapter. The additional process here is ‘thinking’. Now, relationships and practices which are the lifeblood of

FIG 3: A MODEL OF CULTURE, WITH FOUR KEY PROCESSES (ADAPTED FROM SØRENSEN ET AL., 2010)
HAVING
Environments
Materials
Media SHARING
DOING
Activities
Relationships
MAKING Practices
CULTURE
Building meanings,
developing
KNOWING community PLAYING
Knowledge
Experiences
Meaning
BEING
THINKING
Identities
Traditions
Roles

a culture, and the importance of communication and THE MODEL AND THE CREATIVE MINDSET
networks. Are people active in the culture, eager to In the previous chapter we discussed the creative mind-
interact, and support each other? set, characterised by playing, making and sharing. This is
the exploratory, relatively fearless approach to the world
The BEING dimension brings into focus the rituals, which children have in early years but which is so easily
sentimental practices, and group characteristics and lost. This is the creative mindset at the individual level. In
identifiers which play an important role in the binding terms of the more ‘overview’ model of culture introduced
of a culture, but are easily overlooked. Is the culture above, the creative mindset is best supported when there
integrated through shared feelings and collective are stimulating environments and resources (having), when
processes? there is a lot of inspirational activity and the engaging
support of peers and mentors (doing), when there is an
The KNOWING dimension highlights the tacit and ethos which supports the passions of makers (being), and
recorded knowledge that supports a culture, and the where there is a solid body of expertise and knowledge,
willingness of people to share knowledge and exper- and support for learning (knowing). The processes of
tise with their peers. Is this a culture with a rich and playing, making, sharing and thinking are already on the
accessible store of knowledge and shared under model, of course, and they are what propel the culture
standing? forward. When a culture is strong in its support of creative
mindsets, it tends to be a growth culture, with an exciting
It is also worth attending to the four key processes that sense of aspiration, and willing to take risks in order to
stem from these dimensions: achieve innovative ends.
PLAYING — is it a culture which encourages play and

playfulness in children, and in adults? Do adults model
a risk-taking and adventurous attitude, where failure is
accepted as part of the learning journey?
MAKING — is it a culture where people feel encouraged

and motivated to make things together? Is individual
creativity celebrated, or seen as the poor relation of
consumerism?
SHARING — is it a culture where people are eager

to share their learning, ideas and wisdom? Are there
suitable tools to enable exchange and collaboration?
THINKING — is it a culture which encourages reflection

on the processes of playing, making, sharing, and
learning? Are there visible role models of thoughtful
and reflective practitioners?
Asking these kinds of questions means that the model can

be used to assess the strengths and weaknesses of one’s
own current position (or the position of a group that one
cares about), and therefore areas of possible improvement.

FROM THE ESSAYS:
‘…through play, we do feel alive in

a way that is different from the feeling
of being alive in ordinary life. It is a feeling
that is open ended. It is a creative mindset by de-
finition because it is awareness of possibilities and of
surprise outcomes: winning, losing, succeeding,
resolving, affecting, surviving or failing to
achieve.’
(Rochat, 2013)
‘Learning, in the context of the

twenty-first century, needs what we used
to find in football in Brazil: creative improvisation,
freedom, challenge, the union of passion and talent,
fun — pure, natural, unfabricated, unadulterated joy.’
(Chaves, 2013)
FROM THE ESSAYS:
‘Play also
fosters creativity in an
ubuntu sense and promotes the idea
of umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
(a person is only a person through other
people). These African concepts of human
solidarity afford opportunities for children
to act as a collective to promote or
disrupt ideas and/or use objects in
meaningful and novel ways.’
(Ebrahim, 2013)
‘Evolution
[…] throws light on
why fantasy play is so much fun.
There are no motivational problems here,
unlike many other aspects of education
and development. It is natural to engage
in fantasy play, precisely because it is
such an ancient, adaptive, and
necessary activity. Moreover, it is
inherently creative.’
(Donald, 2013)
relationships were forged and knowledge shared; ‘the
ones with more talent helped the ones with less’. This
culture enabled the Brazilians to be very creative and
EXAMPLES ON HOW HAVING, DOING, BEING thus successful at the game.
AND KNOWING APPEAR IN DIFFERENT
CULTURES As Eduardo Chaves explains, ‘It was a paradigmatic case
of learning by doing’, and argues that in recent times
‘learning to play football has become more like regimen-
ted work than spontaneous play. I am convinced that this
1 In his essay ‘Nurturing creative mindsets in the

global community’, Yoshiro Miyata describes his vi-
sit to the Baan Samkha community in northern THAILAND.
change is largely responsible for our steady decline in
professional football. […] Learning, in the context of the
21st century, needs what we used to find in football in
He observed that ‘the children have been involved in the Brazil’.
construction of hundreds of small dams in the river running
through the village, and facilities that produce water and
electricity for the village using the river water’ (Miyata,
2013)
By doing the activity of building the dams together the

children had a shared knowledge of how to build dams
and a sense of shared ownership of resources that inclu-
3 The importance of the being dimension in the
culture model is one that should not be under
estimated. It refers to identities of individuals and groups,
ded dams, water and the facilities that produce water and and their shared traditions, habits and rituals, which is the
electricity. human and emotional side of the continuity that binds a
culture together.
He noted that the children were ‘…well aware that their
life is supported by the community that they are contribu- In Michael Wesch’s essay ‘Building cultures of creativity
ting to, based on the shared meaning that they have crea- in the age of the Knowledge Machine’ we learn that the
ted, based on the relationships that they have created, Nekalimin in NEW GUINEA have a certain set of ritual pro-
based on the products they have created’ and argues that cedures and taboos that surround the creation of house-
the loss of important elements of culture through globa- boards (‘large planks of wood standing about 6 to 8 feet
lisation have resulted in a crisis of the creative mindset. high decorated with geometric patterns of diamonds and
triangles in red, black, and white’) and that ’the know-
ledge required to design one was reserved only for those
who had been properly initiated. Houseboards are not just
symbols of power, they are power’ (Wesch, 2013).
2 Eduardo Chaves uses football to illustrate the

importance of ‘creative improvisation’ in BRAZIL,
a culture he states that ‘love[s] to live dangerously and
He warns that ‘Such rituals and taboos have led many
people to report that cultures such as the Nekalimin lack
a culture of innovation and creativity, but this is not true’
face challenges’ in his essay ‘Play and learning: One Brazi- and that ‘some cultures have been misunderstood as
lian’s view’ (Chaves, 2013). placing less value on creativity simply because the domain
where we might expect creativity (namely “art” which in
By doing the shared activity of playing football, which has the Western conception includes paintings, sculpture, and
its own traditions, i.e. the rules, and using the few re- music) is heavily regulated and ritualized due to the power
sources that the culture had presented (a ball and a field) inherent in the created objects’.

5 Hasina B. Ebrahim’s essay ‘The role of play in
fostering a creative culture: A SOUTH AFRICAN
perspective’ highlights the entwined dimensions of being
and doing (Ebrahim, 2013). Ebrahim points out that the
identity of children and the role they are expected to
fulfill in a society, as perceived by adults, is crucial to
nurturing a creative culture and that this may involve a
shift in the relationship that adults in a society build with
their children. For example, ‘…teachers in centre-based
provision in the Free State noted how Sesotho speaking
parents were concerned about an active learning approach
which encouraged their children to ask questions.
Teachers noted how parents complained about their
children being disrespectful and challenging adult
authority’.
Ebrahim comments that ‘emergent possibilities for crea-

tivity of young children will only flourish if adults around
4 Museums are institutes that serve communities

and are an active medium where meaning,
and thus knowledge, is communicated to individuals
them are sensitive to their needs and interests. This
requires a new mindset on how young children are viewed.
If they are seen as people getting to know their world in
through the creation of experiences. In her essay ‘Cultural the here and now of childhood and in terms of their future
assumptions and social interactions in museums’, Sally roles then adults could make efforts to learn from them
Duensing notes that learning is increasingly being viewed and support them in their meaning making.’
from a sociocultural perspective that recognises the
impact of others on the way learners construct meaning
and that museum exhibit design may reflect cultural norms
with respect to social relationships between and among
visitors (Duensing, 2013). She provides examples from
museum exhibits around the world and observes that U.S.
and Europe exhibits tend to be less orientated towards
6 In his essay, ‘Making and learning in CHINA’,
Francois Grey describes the being and doing
dimensions of the model at a different cultural level to
social group interactions compared to countries such as Hasina B. Ebrahim (Grey, 2013). He explores the identity
BRAZIL, MEXICO and TRINIDAD and TOBAGO. of the maker movement and how society perceives it.
The relationship between the maker movement and Chinese

authorities has changed; previously seen as the ‘disruptive
child’, disrespectful and challenging authority, the maker
movement’s creativity is now supported by some arms of
the Chinese government and academia by the provision
of hacker spaces. Grey notes that this ‘suggests a belief
at the highest levels that the maker movement may help
China face the urgent challenge of moving from low-cost
production economics to high-value creative industries’.

4: BRIDGING CULTURES
In this chapter we discuss building bridges
between cultures.
As noted at the start of this report, however, cultures are not like islands, with sea
between them. Individuals can be members of several cultures; they may inhabit
different cultures to greater or lesser degrees; and some cultures sit within other
cultures, or overlap within more than one. Also, unlike islands, their edges can be
extremely fuzzy.
Nevertheless, despite the vagueness necessarily inherent Communities of interest have a greater creativity
in the boundaries of cultures, we know in a common-sense potential by exploiting diversity not as a constraint to
way that we can talk of cultures, and different kinds deal with but an opportunity to generate new ideas, new
of culture, and ways of linking them up and fostering insights, and new environments. The challenge to foster
conversations between cultures, which can be especially and nurture cultures of creativity is often not to reduce
fruitful. heterogeneity and specialization, but to support it,
manage it, and integrate it by finding ways to build bridges
FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TO CULTURE TO between local knowledge and by exploiting conceptual
CONNECTED CULTURES collisions and breakdowns as sources for innovation.
The bridging process necessarily begins with individuals (Fischer, 2013)
(or individuals in groups) and works outwards. In his essay,
Gerhard Fischer offers a nice model for thinking about this Bridges, therefore, do not need to smooth over, ignore, or
(Fischer, 2013). His starting point connects with that made obliterate differences, but are more about channelling and
by Merlin Donald (see chapter 1), that the human ability supporting conversations. To have fruitful conversations,
to work together using symbolic systems (writing, drawing, what is needed is a common language.
making) — and therefore to make culture together —
has been absolutely fundamental to human progress. The common language does not have to be a spoken or
As Fischer puts it: written language, like English or Japanese. Fans of vintage
clothing, or Scandinavian interior design, are able to share
Our focus on social creativity is grounded in the basic and exchange elements of their passions internationally,
observation that the power of the unaided individual even if they speak a different language, because of their
mind is highly overrated. Although society often thinks of collective understanding of certain ideas and tropes.
creative individuals as working in isolation, intelligence People who are passionate about coffee can exchange ideas
and creativity result in large part from interaction and and enthusiasm, with gestures and sounds and laughter —
collaboration with other individuals. and taste — when they meet in a cafe. But these examples
(Fischer, 2013) are, of course, limited, because clothing or interior design
or coffee are not really intended to be complex tools for
Fischer’s whole methodology is about providing platforms the expression of ideas beyond their natural range. How-
(specifically, digital environments) which enable and ever there are some organised non-verbal systems which
support people to come together to work on things. offer a kind of internationally shareable language. These
include musical notation, maps, Scratch (the tile-based
Our work is grounded in the basic belief that there is an visual programming environment), and the LEGO System.
“and” and not a “versus“ relationship between indivi-
dual and social creativity. Languages are crucial to culture and cultural evolution.
(Fischer, 2013) Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza defines cultures as ‘the ensemble
of customs and technologies that played and continue to
Whilst Etienne Wenger’s (1998) notion of ‘communities of play an essential role in the evolution of our behavior’
practice’ emphasises the strengths of like-minded groups (2001: 173), and it is language which really enabled
working together on a shared interest, Fischer’s broa- the learning and sharing of this cultural ensemble and
der concept of ‘communities of interest’ (Fischer, 2013) so made a huge contribution to human development.
potentially describes any number of individuals and Humans were able to migrate out of sub-Saharan Africa
communities of practice who work on a particular around 50,000 years ago because, in part, of the develop
‘interest’. This approach is less concerned with what ment of language. ‘This formidable instrument of com-
such enthusiasts and groups have in common — rather, munication helped humans explore and establish small
their divergent perspectives on a topic of common societies in distant lands, adapt to new ecological con-
interest are to be valued: ditions, and rapidly absorb technological developments’
(2001: 93).
Cultures of Creativity 34 Bridging Cultures

As language and communication are so important to the As mentioned in the previous chapter, Yoshiro Miyata in
development of creative cultures, as Cavalli-Sforza has his essay discusses collaborative online projects in which
demonstrated in his work, and because human evolution ‘children’s creative mindsets expanded from creating
has benefited so much from the ‘external storage products, to creating relationships, to creating shared
systems’ described by Merlin Donald in chapter one, we meaning, and finally to creating a community (Miyata,
are bound to consider where we stand today, with the 2013). In other words, bridges are built from playing and
great potential of the internet to connect people around making, to a culture of collaboration. Each of these steps
the world, and the opportunity to develop new ways of is linked to the next — for instance, they developed good
communicating to build shared understandings. In the relationships through conversation and feedback about the
previous reports from the LEGO Learning Institute, in things that they had made; and they were able to develop a
particular Defining Systematic Creativity in the Digital sense of shared meaning and community from this, because
Realm (Ackermann et al., 2010), The Future of Play they had already established good relationships.
(Gauntlett et al., 2011), and The Future of Learning
(Gauntlett et al., 2012), we discussed online platforms Miyata argues that to support and expand creative mind-
for collaboration, play and learning in some depth. In The sets, tools, platforms and activities should be designed
Future of Learning, for instance, we found that online to foster two states, the ‘playful mode’ and the ‘mindful
platforms could support self-efficacy beliefs — people’s mode’. In the playful mode, the person should use fami-
faith in their own abilities — in particular by providing liar materials, freely and without interruption, to make
opportunities for mastery experiences where they were new things. In the mindful mode, they should expand their
able to recognise their own agency and ability in the world. focus to include things made by others, and their makers.
We found considerable evidence that peers online could He explains that these two modes often overlap:
be a great source of support and inspiration, and enabled
learners to experiment, tinker, and explore, follow ing For example, as good relations are created with others
their own curiosity — a powerful mode of learning. through a mindful understanding, another playful
mode starts: people begin interacting with each other
There are some increasingly popular, and powerful, playfully but when they try to collaborate, they need
critiques of the ways in which the companies behind major more and more mindfulness in order to discover new
online services and platforms, such as Google, store data, meanings that they can share.
and may leverage that position to extract value or only (Miyata, 2013)
show us a filtered version of the online world (Fuchs, 2013;
Lanier, 2013). But there is no necessary reason why things This model potentially creates a positive spiral of activity,
should be this way, and many of the online DIY communities where playful creativity prompts a mindful engagement
such as Instructables, Dorkbot, Craftster, Ravelry, with the creativity of others, which expands the perceived
Etsy, and Adafruit, sit outside of this more corporate possibilities of one’s own playful creativity, or leads to a
data-harvesting system. The potential of the internet playfully creative collaboration; which in turn will prompt
remains undiminished, even if it is sometimes somewhat new ideas and mindful engagement; and so on. This leads
subverted. Miyata to propose a ‘create — connect — open’ model,
showing how creative mindsets can be fostered:
Therefore we can use existing or new kinds of ‘language’,
face to face or via the internet — or a combination of the CREATE — in which something is playfully created at
two — to share new ways of seeing the world, and therefore the local level;
help to foster creative mindsets and build a collective vision
of cultures of creativity. These cross-cultural bridges might CONNECT — in which the creations enter into a broader
not just be connecting different places, but could be across context, with those of others, bringing surprises and
generations, or across time, and can link up local with expanding the sense of possibilities;
global cultures.

FROM THE ESSAYS:
“From academic disciplines, motor

skills, to art work, the concept of
基本功 ‘ji ben gong’, literally means the
basic or foundational concepts,

skills, and techniques, is a deeply
ingrained idea of learning that
underpins Chinese teacher’s
pedagogies (Wong, 2008). […] It is
believed that after the basics are
consolidated, creative ideas or
creativity can then take place.”
(Vong, 2013)
OPEN — in which the experience of the wider field everything else seems dissimilar, some meaning-
feeds back into local understanding, bringing new making can begin from that point. An obvious example
insights to previously familiar things and relation here involves the Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs) — discussed
ships. These insights loop back into new activity at in the essay by Marie Taillard and Yun Mi Antorini — whose
the ‘create’ and ‘connect’ levels. lowest common denominator is their love of a particular
toy construction system (Taillard & Antorini, 2013). What
Miyata’s approach links back to Gerhard Fischer’s they ‘have’ at first is simply LEGO, the physical bricks;
argument that creative tools should move people from although this can quickly escalate into a complex web
the role of ‘consumer’ to that of ‘designer’ — facilitated of shared understandings around the common meanings
by ‘a shift from consumer cultures (specialized in pro- that they associate with the LEGO Group and its products
ducing finished artifacts to be consumed passively) to (knowing and being), and knowledge about materials and
cultures of participation (in which all people are provided building techniques (knowing and doing).
with the means to participate and to contribute actively
in personally meaningful problems)’ The bridges themselves can be formed by the processes
(Fischer, 2013; Miyata, 2013). which arise from the interaction of having, doing, being
and knowing: these processes are playing, making, sharing
BRIDGING CULTURES WITH THE DYNAMIC and thinking. By playing together, or making things
MODEL together, or by sharing meaningful things, or by making
In the previous chapter we introduced a model of culture collective judgements, we offer a part of ourselves into the
with four key dimensions, ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’, and process of making new meanings — and so collaboratively
‘knowing’. To recap: having is about the resources which develop a new space of shared culture. The collective
a culture presents us with; doing is about the activities, activity leads to new identifications and new knowledge,
relationships and practices which bring a culture to life; binding the cultures together.
being is about the identities of individuals and groups, and
their shared traditions and states of mind; and knowing is GLOBAL AND LOCAL CULTURES
about the culture’s ways of making sense of things. The fuzziness of cultures, mentioned at the start of this
chapter, is of course exacerbated by globalisation and our
This model can be used to understand the ways in which networked world, and the rich blend of microcultures and
bridges can be built between cultures. Connections are subcultures that we inhabit, sample, or shift between.
likely to be made, of course, where people have things As Edith Ackermann observes in her essay:
in common. So for example, where there are some
shared practices, there can be a connection like this, One of the particularities of today’s “cultures of crea
where ’doing’ enables the making of shared meanings (see tivity” is that they are neither local (typical of a region)
Fig. 4). nor global (common among citizens of the world). Instead,
they cut across generations, social groups, and territorial
In fact, as we have seen, people are likely to be part borders (geographic, national, ethnic), resembling what
of more than one or two cultures. Some will be broader some refer to as “glocal” . [...] Examples of glocalization
cultural identities (for example, Brazilians, or Christians) include the blending of local cuisines (global slow-food,
whilst some will be more specific microcultures (for local-fast food), the hybridization of styles and genres
example, architects, or Star Wars fans). So there might (fashion, status symbols), and the creolization in music
be multiple bridges of shared meaning, as in the example (remix culture, word music). In addition, we are also
in Fig. 5. witnessing a “glocalization” of displaced folks’ own
sense of who they are (identity), what they wish for
This illustration incorporates the previous example, with themselves and loved ones (dreams) and where they
connection made on the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ elements, and feel they belong (home).
includes another, where the connection is made on the (Ackermann, 2013)
basis of ‘having’ similar habitats or tools. Even if

FIG. 4: TWO CULTURES, CONNECTED ON THE DIMENSIONS OF ‘DOING’
HAVING HAVING
Environments Environments
Materials Materials
Media SHARING SHARING Media
MAKING MAKING
CULTURE CULTURE
KNOWING 1 PLAYING PLAYING 2 KN
Knowledge Kno
Experiences Exp
Meaning Me
BEING THINKING
THINKING BEING
Identities
Traditions Identities
Roles Traditions
Roles

As people identify with ‘multiple tribes’ and have a more graphy of garden birds, or crafts, or robotics) and share
fluid sense of belonging, we lose the sense in which ‘a bits of acquired knowledge in discussion forums, blogs or
culture’ is a body of people who are fully and exclusively videos. Wesch goes on:
its members. The internet, in particular, enables people
to become simultaneously ‘global’ citizens — as they can This is not to say that he would not benefit from
exchange ideas, information and personal expressions with learning from others with expert knowledge of this
people from around the world — and more ‘local’ as they domain. The example portrays a peculiar and very subtle
personalise their online experience, communicate in an double-aspect of expertise. On the one hand, we have
individualised way, and find ways to engage with physically all experienced the power of learning from a skilled
local people and events which only become visible online. master who can guide us beyond our current capacities.
Ackermann quotes from Cultures and Globalization: The But if, on the other hand, that guidance becomes
Cultural Economy by Helmut Anheier and Yudhishthir Raj authoritarian prescription, such expertise will come at
Isar, where it is noted: the cost of autonomy and self-efficacy.
(Wesch, 2013)
From the personal computer and digital camera to the
cell phone, humankind inhabits an increasingly net This perhaps explains why new online communities of
worked world in which communication and personal learning work rather well, because people can opt to learn
expression and development reign supreme. from a master, but are not compelled to do so. Because
(Anheier & Raj Isar, 2008: 436) people can choose what to learn, and who to learn it with,
based on their own personal passions and preferences, they
In this world, an increasing number of people are making are able to enjoy the powerful sense of the self-directed
and sharing things, both online and offline, and they work journey.
together in new ways, as Ackermann says, characterised
BEING
more by an ‘open source’ ethos of learning from each Identities
Traditions
other, rather than competition. PLAYING Roles
KNOWING
Environments
Materials
Michael Wesch tells the story of Peni, his friend in New Media SHARING
CULTURE
Guinea, who had been taught nothing about radios, and KNOWING 2
THINKING
DOING
yet, through tinkering, had worked out ‘a repertoire of Knowledge
Experiences Activities
Meaning Relationships
techniques’ which made him an improvisational kind of MAKING MAKING Practices
HAVING HAVING
radio expert. Wesch reflects: Environments Environments
Materials
THINKING Materials
Media
Media
CULTURE
Throughout our schooling, which is largely based on BEING 1
Identities SHARING
“instructionism,” we have been taught that knowledge Traditions
Roles
comes from the expert. Peni’s knowledge of the radio PLAYING DOING
Activities
developed because there was no expert. Unschooled, Relationships
Practices
he was not limited to the solutions that might be
taught by the expert, and so his axe was as likely to DOING
Activities
be used for a tool as a soldering iron. He mixed and SHARING
Relationships
Practices
BEING
melded the knowledge from many domains of his life Identities
Traditions
to become a master radio technician unlike any in the

Roles MAKING
CULTURE
3
Western world. PLAYING HAVING
Environment
Experiences
(Wesch, 2013) THINKING
Meaning
KNOWING
Knowledge
Experiences
Meaning
We might say that this is like when people learn together
online — often with no formal training, they embark on
projects of shared interest (such as family trees, or photo Fig. 5: Three cultures, connected on different dimensions.

5: CONCLUSION
Nurturing a creative mindset across cultures
This report was built on the sturdy foundations of

the 18 essays which were commissioned
from experts around the world.
We felt it was only right to reflect something from each of them in this report, and
so the preceding chapters have included quite a spread of ideas. In this chapter we
hope to sum up some conclusions to the key questions: What are the core insights
on cultures? How can the creative mindset be sustained in different cultures? And
how can we build bridges between cultures?
ON CULTURES is, what its values are, and whether it is willing to evolve.
To begin with a general observation: it is easy and com- It is a never-ending conversation which is both risk-taking
mon to think of cultures in terms of ‘cultural differences’ and defensive when new elements come along — as they
— my people are like this, your people are like that. In this do all the time.
report and the accompanying essays, however, the clear
message is that cultural differences can be significant, but In terms of ‘cultural differences’, we find that different
overall, human cultures are more characterised by their cultures come with different sets of values, rituals, heroes
similarities than their differences. We have seen that and symbols. Therefore a culture is not about everyone
creativity is generally considered to be of high value in all thinking alike, but within a culture, people are likely to
cultures — even those which, because of conflicting pres- share a number of basic assumptions and orientations. It
sures, do not always support its development in practice. is this distinctive way of thinking, with its particular tones
and flavours, which makes members of one culture some-
Whilst culture is sometimes thought of as a pleasant gloss what (but not totally) different from members of other
of activity, which may add richness to our spare time but cultures.
is not really essential — as in the ‘Culture’ section in a
newspaper, reviewing the latest film or opera production Finally, as a tool for thinking about creative cultures,
— we have seen in this report that culture is more like a we presented a model adapted from one by Anne Scott
hard-working machine, storing, assimilating and deploying Sørensen et al (2010). The model shows culture both as the
knowledge so that humankind can develop and flourish. already-existing site within which people are creative, and
simultaneously as the ‘live’ space which influences, and
We have seen how the development of ‘cultural memory is influenced by, their creativity. It picks out four dimen-
systems’ — as Merlin Donald called them — such as writing, sions, ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’, and ‘knowing’, although
drawing, and the internet, offered ‘an extraordinary evo- it should be noted that these overlap and are continuously
lutionary strategy’, giving us a way to record, share, and in play together — not separately. The model is described
manipulate ideas. In this way, culture is not only the store- more fully in chapter 3.
house, but is also the central processing unit, of collective
human life.
In The Future of Learning (Gauntlett et al., 2012), one of

HAVING
the central concepts that we highlighted was ‘scaffolding’ Environments
— the ways in which human beings can ‘scaffold’ learning Materials
Media SHARING
for each other, by acting as a supportive peer with high
expectations. In the present study, we see that culture can DOING
Activities
‘scaffold’ human development in a similar way, by provi Relationships
MAKING Practices
ding a platform upon which ideas can be visualised, shared
CULTURE
and collectively worked on, so that further development Building meanings,
developing
KNOWING PLAYING
can be built on top of that. The scaffold of culture makes Knowledge
community
ideas stable and manipulable, and it ties them down in a Experiences

Meaning
shared language so that other people can appreciate, use
BEING
or change them. THINKING
Identities
Traditions
Roles
We also saw that Artin Göncü’s model of how children
manage to collaborate in play could also be used to
understand how something as abstract as a ‘culture’ could
be assembled, negotiated and changed (Göncü, 2013).
The process is a sort of ragged improvisation which, over
time, becomes a kind of consensus about what a culture Fig. 6: A model of culture (adapted from Sørensen et al., 2010)
Cultures of Creativity 41 Conclusion

Culture is therefore a system through which people build Mitch Resnick, in his essay, pulls together some of these
meanings, and develop community, through the dimen- ideas and offers a powerful solution to sustain creative
sions of having, doing, being and knowing. These are driv- mindsets (Resnick, 2013). He observes that schools are ge-
en by playing, sharing, making and thinking — the active nerally poor at encouraging creative, risk-taking, collabo-
processes through which people learn and form meanings rative activities. It is in schools that the creative mindset
together. is broken amidst fear of giving the ‘wrong answer’ in class.
As in several of the essays, the current school system is
We hope that the model is useful as it helps us to focus on seen as generally uninspiring, and indeed damaging. ‘But
ways to maximise creative opportunities within a culture. there is an important exception,’ Resnick says: ‘Kinder-
It draws our attention to the key aspects of a thriving garten’.
creative community, and so can be used to organise ideas
and plans for developing that culture, and the creative In kindergarten, children make things, and they collabo
mindsets that will build the culture. rate. In doing so, they come to learn about materials,
colours, and how things fit together; and about their
SUSTAINING THE CREATIVE MINDSET environment, and relationships. But that’s not all:
In chapter 2, we introduced the creative mindset — an
attitude to the world characterised by curiosity, questions, Even more important, the kindergarten students are
and a desire to play, make and share — which children starting to develop as creative thinkers. As they play-
possess in their early years. We saw that different cultures fully work together, they learn about the creative
are bound to have different takes on the creative mindset, process: how to imagine new ideas, try them out, test
and that it is often — tragically — suppressed or destroyed the boundaries, experiment with alternatives, get
by adults and schooling. Sustaining this delicate creative feedback from others, and generate new ideas based
mindset is a considerable challenge in any culture. on their experiences.
(Resnick, 2013)
Cultural ingredients and creative mindsets combine to give
us the innovative edge of any given culture. To get the So in order to develop as creative thinkers, children — and
best of this combination, we should value the distinctive adults — need opportunities to make things. They also
aspects of a culture, whilst being mindful of the need to need stimulating environments to do this in, and inter
nurture and sustain the creative mindset. esting materials to do this with. (See Resnick’s essay for
the story about ‘Froebel’s Gifts’). Creating things is all
The creative mindset is supported by ensuring that citizens about learning through making, working with others and
have a strong sense of agency in both play and learning. building meanings. From a school perspective, much of the
In previous chapters, we saw Ebrahim’s point that self- playing, making and sharing that happens in kindergarten
initiated play enables children to ‘become powerful and is ‘just mucking about’; the apparent irrationality of this
take control of the situations [that] they have prioritised’, situation is only explained by the fact that the children
and Hennessey’s argument that students should feel like are too young for ‘proper’ learning. And yet the learning
‘agents’ rather than ‘pawns’ (Ebrahim, 2013; Hennessey, that happens in kindergarten is just the kind of hands-on,
2013). Making things offers the discovery and confidence collaborative, experimental, experiential learning that we
that comes from introducing new things into the world; need much more of, at all levels of education and beyond.
and sharing is the act of building connections with others
through personal disclosure. By sharing ideas, experiences As Resnick explains, playing, making and sharing are vital
or preferences, people develop relationships and build elements of learning. When we take the time to play —
pathways towards new insights together. Platforms and adopting an exploratory, experimental stance where we
languages that enable sharing and exchange are there are free of most banal constraints and consequences —
fore crucial because they are the crucibles for new under and so make things which put our ideas into the world in
standing and co-created meaning. physical form, then we have something to tinker with,
think more about, and to share with others so that they

may do the same. The sharing also means that we can The argument here is not that all cultures should become
think about what the thing might mean to others, and can the same, or sign up to an identical prescription, of course.
build new meanings for it, together. At present, the situation is that all cultures have new-
born children with enormous creative potential, and then
As Resnick says: those cultures each, very often, erode and negate that
potential. This occurs in some similar and some different
There is a constant interplay between making new things ways, but is often through an emphasis in school on
in the world and making new ideas in your head. As you learning facts and strict processes, rather than lear-
make new things, and get feedback from others (and ning to be creative and experimental; and a general
from yourself), you can revise, modify, and improve devaluation of really meaningful playing, making and
your ideas. And based on these new ideas, you are sharing in everyday adult life.
inspired to make new things. The process goes on and
on, with making and learning reinforcing one another in So the point is to preserve the delightful diversity of cultu-
a never-ending spiral. res in our world, of course, but to infuse them more with
(Resnick, 2013) the lifelong kindergarten spirit, and the values of playing,
making and sharing. This will foster the creative mindset,
This spiral, which is at the heart of the kindergarten encourage people to take interesting risks, and drive inno-
approach to learning, develops the ability to make inter vation and the desire to make a difference. These things
esting things, but also sharpens thinking and the ability to are the lifeblood of any culture.
select and refine good ideas. At the same time, it builds an
understanding of the creative process itself. BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN CULTURES
When considering how bridges can be built between
So the message is clear: to sustain the creative mindset, cultures — in chapter 4 — we argued that bridges between
within any culture, we need a ‘lifelong kindergarten’ cultures do not need to ignore or obliterate differences,
spirit, characterised by as many opportunities as possible but are more about channelling and supporting conver
for playing, making and sharing. We need environments sations. (It should be remembered here that bridging
that will encourage playful experimentation, and we need cultures might mean developing conversations across
resources and tools that will bring out the creative passion generations, or different lifestyles or kinds of enthusiasts,
in children and adults. As Resnick acknowledges, older or between ethnic, religious, or other cultural back-
children and adults may not want to be associated with grounds).
the ‘childish’ toys of the kindergarten, and so they need
more appropriate resources which can achieve the same To have fruitful conversations, a common language is need-
effect: these would include electronic systems and online ed. Therefore language is crucially important to creative
platforms, as well as non-digital everyday tools, such as cultures. As well as spoken languages and their written
pens and paper, construction materials, and anything else counterparts, there are non-verbal systems which offer a
that comes to hand. kind of internationally shareable language, such as musical
notation, maps, Scratch, and the LEGO System.
The lifelong kindergarten-style culture is not just about
what you ‘have’, of course; as we have seen, a culture Artin Göncü’s model, which as we saw above can be used
is about four dimensions, ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’ and to understand the process of negotiation by which the con-
‘knowing’. ‘Having’ is about the resources which a culture tent and ethos of a culture is formed, can be especially
presents us with. ‘Doing’ is about the activities, relation useful for understanding how cultures are bridged (Göncü,
ships and practices which bring a culture to life. ‘Being’ is 2013). Just as children playing together offer each other a
about the identities, traditions and rituals that bind a cul- ‘curriculum’ for collaboration, and set about seeing what
ture together. ‘Knowing’ is about knowledge, experiences spontaneous connections can be made to work, so too do
and meanings, both historic and current. So the activities, people trying to connect across cultures. They may only
ethos and shared knowledge of the kindergarten are just have certain things in common, but these shared elements
as important as the environment and resources. of resources, activities, identity or knowledge — in other

words, ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’ or ‘knowing’ — can be Such achievements are only possible when the creative
used to ignite a conversation. This is the process which we mindset is fostered, when risk-taking is encouraged, and
illustrated in chapter 4. when a playing, making, sharing ethos flows around a
culture. In today’s terms, it means we need inspirational
The ideas of Yoshiro Miyata draw together both the environments, and well-designed, easy to use online plat-
question of how we support the creative mindset, and how forms — as well as physical hands-on tools of a pleasing
we build bridges between cultures (Miyata, 2013). As we quality — which we can use to develop and shape ideas
saw in chapter 4, Miyata shows what creative mindsets can (having). It means we need inspiring relationships with
be supported by building bridges from making things, to people we can learn from as we create brilliant things
making relationships, to making shared meanings, to making together (doing). It means we need a supportive, creative
a community. His ‘create — connect — open’ model shows ethos, which offers striking role models of people who
how creative mindsets can be fostered by connecting local, have taken risks to produce great innovations (being).
playful creativity with a broader context, and then feeding And it means we need access to stimulating examples and
insights from the wider field back into local understanding. the support of knowledgeable peers and experts — online,
offline, or both — so that we can benefit from existing
The notion of ‘bridging cultures’ is easier to picture in ideas and wisdom (knowing). Finally, to increase the diver-
a diagram than in real life, of course. In a globalised, sity of possibilities open to us, we need languages and plat-
networked world, individuals may identify with multiple forms which enable us to build bridges of shared meaning
cultures and ‘tribes,’ which may have no connection with between cultures.
regional or national identities. They are also more likely to
prefer to connect and learn from each other online, rather If we can sustain the creative mindset, and maximise the
than receiving instruction from a teacher. Furthermore, creative potential and stimulus within our cultures, then
this learning is likely to be embedded within everyday life we can play, make and share our way to a brighter and
— which is the best place for it. As Gerhard Fischer writes more connected future.
in his essay, ‘Learning should not take place in a separate
BEING
phase and in a separate place, but should be integrated Identities
Traditions
into people’s lives, allowing them to construct solutions to PLAYING Roles
KNOWING
their own problems’ Knowledge
Experiences SHARING
(Fischer, 2013). Meaning
CULTURE
KNOWING 2
THINKING
Knowledge DOING
IN CONCLUSION Experiences
Meaning
Activities
Relationships
MAKING MAKING Practices
At the beginning of this study we noted the example of HAVING HAVING
Environments Environments
Florence, Italy, at the start of the 15th century. In less THINKING Materials Materials
Media
Media
than three decades, the people of this town produced CULTURE
BEING 1
a considerable number of artistic and architectural Identities SHARING
Traditions
masterpieces, which are still treasured 600 years later. Roles
PLAYING DOING
We saw that this could not be explained in terms of ‘genius’ Activities
Relationships
Practices
individuals, but rather was because of a deliberate co-
ordination of elements of the culture. There were potent DOING
Activities
resources, enabling makers to manifest their dreams; Relationships
Practices
SHARING
BEING
there was an inspirational flurry of creative activity and Identities
Traditions
Roles MAKING
encouraging relationships; there was a collective ideology CULTURE
3
of doing something fantastic together for the city; and PLAYING HAVING
Environment
Experiences
there was a rich fund of ideas, techniques and knowledge KNOWING

THINKING
Meaning
Knowledge
to draw upon. In other words, there were strong things Experiences
Meaning
happening in each of ‘having’, ‘doing’, ‘being’ and ‘know-

ing’ dimensions of the culture. Fig. 7: A model of culture (adapted from Sørensen et al., 2010)

FROM THE ESSAYS:
‘If play of young children is truly

to become the vehicle to nurture
creativity in a diverse society like
South Africa the way forward
would be for adults to become
highly aware of the critical role
they play. Emergent possibilities
for creativity of young children
will only flourish if adults around
them are sensitive to their needs
and interests.’ (Ebrahim, 2013)
FROM THE ESSAYS:
he meaning of the term creativity is culture-specific; Keang-ieng (Peggy) Vong

explains that in China ‘the term creativity (創造力) appears in Shu’s
(1986) [dictionary] edition where it means the power/strength to make/
produce any event or object with new idea (Vong, 2013). In Xia’s
(1999) edition, the term creativity implies the ability to rework and create
upon accumulated knowledge and experiences scientifically to produce new
concepts, new knowledge, and new thinking. In general, it is made up of four abilities:
the ability to perceive, memorise, think and imagine.
Vong, 2013
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Cultures of Creativity 47 References

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David Gauntlett & Bo Stjerne Thomsen

ABOUT THE LEGO FOUNDATION

The LEGO Foundation is built on the enduring values of

This report is published by the LEGO Foundation

Cultures of Creativity 3 Contents

The LEGO Foundation

Cultures of Creativity 4 Preface

Cultures are a shared set of understandings, meanings

This study finds that although it is common to speak

Cultures of Creativity 5 Executive summary

There is one place of learning which does foster crea­

Cultures of Creativity 6 Executive summary

We must preserve the delightful diversity of cultures

To have fruitful conversations, a common language is

Connected cultures may only have certain things in

Through the processes of playing, making and sharing,

Cultures of Creativity 7 Executive summary

Creativity is often thought of in individual terms. We can think of particular figures,

Cultures of Creativity 9 Introduction

Cultures of Creativity 10 Introduction

‘Cultures of creativity thrive wherever

Cultures of Creativity 12 Introduction

Most simply, ‘culture’ refers to a shared layer of under-

The study of play through time and across cultures

Here, as in other cases, we find that the general experi-

Cultures of Creativity 13 Introduction

Cultures of Creativity 15 The creative mindset

Cultures of Creativity 16 The creative mindset

Cultures of Creativity 17 The creative mindset

Other elements of creativity, such as imagination and ingenuity, operate initially at

Cultures of Creativity 19 Playing, making, sharing

Cultures of Creativity 20 Playing, making, sharing

‘To foster, nurture, and support creative

Cultures of Creativity 22 Playing, making, sharing

Based on these findings, I am claiming that imaginative CULTURES ARE SYSTEMS

Cultures of Creativity 23 Playing, making, sharing

Cultures of Creativity 24 Playing, making, sharing

Cultures of Creativity 25 Playing, making, sharing

MAKING — which connects doing (creative action) USING THE MODEL

Cultures of Creativity 26 Playing, making, sharing

Cultures of Creativity 27 Playing, making, sharing

PLAYING — is it a culture which encourages play and

MAKING — is it a culture where people feel encouraged

SHARING — is it a culture where people are eager

THINKING — is it a culture which encourages reflection

Asking these kinds of questions means that the model can

Cultures of Creativity 28 Playing, making, sharing

‘…through play, we do feel alive in

‘Learning, in the context of the

1 In his essay ‘Nurturing creative mindsets in the

By doing the activity of building the dams together the

2 Eduardo Chaves uses football to illustrate the

Cultures of Creativity 31 Playing, making, sharing

Ebrahim comments that ‘emergent possibilities for crea-

4 Museums are institutes that serve communities

The relationship between the maker movement and Chinese

Cultures of Creativity 32 Playing, making, sharing

Cultures of Creativity 34 Bridging Cultures

Cultures of Creativity 35 Bridging Cultures

There is one place of learning which does foster crea