Locating cultural creativity

What does creativity mean - and does it have both a political and a cultural dimension? The contributors to this volume reexamine the interconnectedness of culture and creativity in an increasingly hybrid world. They argue that while many of the old certainties about high culture and artistic canons may now be disintegrating, culture and creativity themselves are still very much a reflection of social processes involving power and the control of resources.Looking at the ways in which creativity is used more generally in the social sciences, the contributors reveal the importance of creativity, and its links with cultural change, in challenging the norm, offering alternative world views, suggesting strategies of resistance or accommodation in times of uncertainty, diffusion, migration and change, in the transition from modernity to post modernity. Examples are taken from across the globe, covering a wide range of cultures. Case studies include youth subcultures in Europe: revolutionary theater in the Brazilian candombli dance: the role of memory in mythology among the Pukapukan of Polynesia: the evolution of football and polo in Argentina: gender relations in Algerian rao music, employment strategies in the commodification of pharmaceuticals in Uganda: the notion of authenticity in artistic movements in Zanzibar: traditional and modern practices of the Lio in Indonesia: and kula exchange and social movements in Trobriand Island in the Pacific.