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Injecting Creativity in Society for Possible Futures of Improved Ethics and Equity

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Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

The notion of social justice requires our capacity to imagine possible alternative societies as well as the determination to work, collectively, towards actualizing them. By considering certain forms of social organization as natural, and obscuring their purely conventional character, we would be effectively denying the possibility of any competing societies from being imagined. The imposition of a unique model for society can become a strong source of social injustice and discrimination between diversified groups. Whoever is able to build the strongest castle of pre-conditions that affect the way in which other groups are perceived in their way of life holds a subtle but very real form of power. In this chapter, we show that creativity can provide a way out from this deadlock. The first element is to realize that in the Information Society creativity is not a luxury, but a real necessity. The second element is to analyze how the introduction of creativity in education has several benefits, and that the consideration of creativity has the potential to affect ethics and equity for admissions to higher education and gifted programs. The third element involves introducing a “pedagogy of the possible,” in which creativity becomes intertwined with powerful concepts like hope, anticipation, utopian thinking, and wonder. By nurturing these fundamental concepts in students, it is possible to push the boundaries of social justice and discover that what was considered an impossibility can be reached.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DEI-Marconi Institute for Creativity, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Giovanni Emanuele Corazza

  2. LAPEA, Université de Paris, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

    Giovanni Emanuele Corazza

  3. LAPEA, IFSTTAR, University Gustave Eiffel, Versailles, France

    Giovanni Emanuele Corazza

  4. Department of Psychology and Counseling, Webster University Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Vlad P. Glaveanu

  5. Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology (SLATE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Vlad P. Glaveanu

  6. Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    James C. Kaufman

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  1. Giovanni Emanuele Corazza
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  2. Vlad P. Glaveanu
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  3. James C. Kaufman
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Correspondence to Giovanni Emanuele Corazza .

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  1. Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Carol A. Mullen

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Corazza, G.E., Glaveanu, V.P., Kaufman, J.C. (2021). Injecting Creativity in Society for Possible Futures of Improved Ethics and Equity. In: Mullen, C.A. (eds) Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29553-0_66-1

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