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13 - Creativity and capabilities

A problem of change and uncertainty?

from Part II - Inclusiveness, Social and Individual Agency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2024

By
Jonathan Warner
Edited by
Flavio Comim ,
P. B. Anand  and
Shailaja Fennell
Flavio Comim
Affiliation:
Universitat Ramon Llull
P. B. Anand
Affiliation:
University of Bradford
Shailaja Fennell
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

Advances in technology have opened up new opportunities for people to live in different ways. Human creativity is one of the most important causes of changes of this kind. Flourishing probably requires space for people to be creative (in a broad sense) and to benefit from (and rejoice in) the creativity of others. But creativity is often destructive, as Joseph Schumpeter famously noted, destroying value as well as creating it. That change will take place is predictable, but the direction of the change and how rapid it will be are things that probably cannot be known ex ante. Predictions made 50 years ago about what life would be like today are not noted for their accuracy. More recently, the uses of social media have gone beyond what the developers of the technology could foresee. In a world of increasing and unpredictable technological change, what will a life that we have reason to value look like?

Keywords

Capability Approachcreativityinnovationtechnological changepublic choicesocial media
Type
Chapter
Information
Social Choice, Agency, Inclusiveness and Capabilities , pp. 284 - 302
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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