Bold, passionate and refreshing: a timely correction to the doctrine of our times and offers a radical redefinition of creativity

From line managers, corporate CEOs, urban designers, teachers, politicians, mayors, advertisers and even our friends and family, the message is 'be creative'. Creativity is heralded as the driving force of our contemporary society; celebrated as agile, progressive and liberating. It is the spring of the knowledge economy and shapes the cities we inhabit. It even defines our politics. What could possibly be wrong with this?

In this brilliant, counter intuitive blast Oli Mould demands that we rethink the story we are being sold. Behind the novelty, he shows that creativity is a barely hidden form of neoliberal appropriation. It is a regime that prioritizes individual success over collective flourishing. It refuses to recognise anything - job, place, person - that is not profitable. And it impacts on everything around us: the places where we work, the way we are managed, how we spend our leisure time.

"Provocative and often brilliant book." - Guardian

"Superb, thought-provoking. Mould turns the notion of the 'creative worker' on its head." - Pop Matters

"Inherently fascinating, impressively thoughtful and thought-provoking, Against Creativity is a unique, extraordinary, iconoclastic, and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Humanist Philosophy, Political Science, and Contemporary Psychology collections and supplemental studies lists" - Midwest Book Review