Abstract
This chapter defines creativity. It also discusses the conditions that foster creativity and the extent to which creativity is part of mediation.
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- 1.
According to West and Richter (2008, p. 215), “Creativity can be seen as the development of new ideas, while innovation implementation is the application of those new ideas in practice.” Using this distinction, it follows that creativity is a necessary prerequisite for innovation. Mann (2011, p. 255) notes that “creativity and innovation are central to thinking and planning for national change and transformation, productivity and performance and social and economic success.”
- 2.
According to Dyer et al. (2011, p. 21), “creative ideas spring from behavioral skills (that individuals) can acquire to catalyze innovative ideas in (themselves) and in others.”
- 3.
According to Bilton (2007, p. 23), “creativity theory has demonstrated a growing skepticism towards individual trait-based models of creativity of the type propounded in the 1960s. Behaviourist models are criticized for ignoring external conditions.”
- 4.
Brainstorming is a group technique “in which group members freely and spontaneously present ideas, in a positive environment in which critical or negative thinking is suspended” (Prather 2010, p. 33).
- 5.
A ladder is drawn and an abstract/general concept is written at the top of the ladder and, by asking how something will be done, the group can move down the ladder to specific actions (Prather 2010, pp. 35–36).
- 6.
Mann (2011, p. 257) says, however, “that attempts to ‘teach’ creativity as a set of generic rules and principles (‘think outside the box’) and techniques (e.g., ‘do some brainstorming) is irrelevant for genuine creativity but may be useful as a tool for ‘everyday creativity’, i.e. routine problem-solving.”
- 7.
Abramson and Moore, who run community conferences but are not mediators, write about the creative outcomes in the conferencing process they use with schools in their chapter in this volume. They also indicate that they do not think of mediation as a creative process.
- 8.
According to Mann (2011, p. 257), “Creativity is fundamentally domain specific: creative people are very rarely creative across a range of fields and domains. They are bright, motivated people who are creative through immersion and deep knowledge in a particular domain. This highlights the importance of in-depth knowledge in a domain to be creative.”
- 9.
If a mediator is working with an organization that is going to put a mediation program in place or redesign a program, it is easier for the company representative to see that creativity needs to be part of the program design when it is part of the definition of the field.
- 10.
In 2011, the Burning Man event was a featured part of an exhibit about the living frontiers of architecture at Louisiana, the Danish museum of modern art. The exhibit curator, Kjeld Kjeldsen (telephone interview. November 22, 2011) had never been to Burning Man, but an artist, in 2006, had told him about his contribution to the event. Burning Man was described in the exhibit catalog (Louisiana 2011, p. 24) as a place “of alternative dwellings and vehicles that reflect all sorts of utopian ideas of a different world.”
- 11.
The booth was a tent (enclosed on three sides to provide some shade and protection from blowing sand) with three folding chairs. Over the entrance was a large sign that said “Fighting With Anyone? Help & advice here.” Kelly (telephone interview. September 9, 2011) said he really doesn’t give advice, “but that is OK on the sign.” At the side of the tent entrance was a smaller sign: “The Mediator is in.” (Sheppard 2010).
- 12.
In this quote, there are quotes and comments that appear in parenthesis and italics. These points either appear elsewhere in the Hedeen and Kelly (2009) article or were mentioned by Kelly in the telephone interview on September 9, 2011.
- 13.
There is the possibility that the more mediation organizations or groups of mediators call attention to all these issues, that courts might simply decide to rename the process they use as something other than mediation.
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Fritz, J.M., Fritz, J.M. (2014). Creativity. In: Fritz, J. (eds) Moving Toward a Just Peace. Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2885-1_3
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