CLASS SEVEN

What was the original meaning of “industry”?

Personal diligence or sustained effort

How did the meaning of “industry” change?

It shifted from a personal quality of diligent effort toward institutions of production/trade and eventually organized mechanical production.

When did “creativity” become a widely used concept?

Around the middle of the 20th century, especially after WWII—the “Big Bang of creativity.”

Who drove the initial postwar interest in creativity?

U.S. psychologists were central, working within a broader network involving management, engineering, advertising, science, and industry.

What older concepts partly overlapped with creativity?

Imagination, inspiration, fantasy, genius, originality, ingenuity, and inventiveness—but none captured exactly the same combination of meanings.

What is the common modern definition of creativity discussed by Franklin?

The ability to produce something new and useful.

Why did “creativity” appeal to postwar American society?

It reconciled competing values: individuality with organizational life, artistic freedom with practical productivity, and nonconformity with economic usefulness.

What social problem was creativity supposed to address?

Anxiety about conformity and alienation in mass society, while still producing innovation within large corporations and institutions.

What is a “structure of feeling”?

The shape and organization of ideas and sentiments at particular times and in particular contexts.

According to Raymond Williams, how do the meanings of keywords change?

Their meanings change over time according to context and speakers’ ideologies; words can therefore reflect changing social values and structures of feeling.

How did the meaning of “industry” change?

It originally referred to personal diligence/hard work, but eventually came to refer primarily to economic institutions and organized production.

When and by whom was “creativity” first popularized?

After WWII, especially in the 1950s, by U.S. psychologists with military funding, including J. P. Guilford and Abraham Maslow. It subsequently spread into education, advertising, management, and HR.

What is “divergent thinking”?

J. P. Guilford's idea of finding new—not necessarily better—ways to solve a problem.

What is the “criteria problem” in measuring creativity?

To validate a creativity test, researchers might test it on people already considered “creative”—but that creates the problem of how they knew those people were creative in the first place.

What is reification?

The process through which people treat a concept or category as if it were a concrete, objectively existing thing. Franklin argues that psychologists helped reify creativity by naming, studying, testing, and measuring it as though it were a single thing existing inside people's minds. Sept 28 slides

What did Lily Chumley find about “creativity classes” in China?

Students learned to present themselves and their artwork through personal narratives and distinctive styles. These practices helped construct them as “creative” people and later became useful in marketing and advertising work.

What are “creative industries”?

Jobs and businesses that produce media and aesthetic objects for consumption, including music, fashion, and advertising. However, “creativity” is also valued outside explicitly creative industries.

What is the “creative class”?

Richard Florida's broad category of professionals whose work involves producing meaningful new forms; he argued that attracting these workers could help revitalize cities.

What is artwashing?

A form of gentrification that takes advantage of young artists' desire to live in cities and willingness to occupy and improve inexpensive or rundown neighborhoods, contributing to neighborhood transformation and rising property values

Why does the lecture compare “creativity” today with “industry” in the 18th–19th centuries?

Both became powerful keywords of their economic eras. Their changing meanings reflect broader structures of feeling, values, labor practices, and economic organization.