CHAPTER 2: Teaching Creativity as a Demand-Led Competency

There was a time when books on economics and books on creativity would have been considered odd mates in a bookbag. They were books that might growl at each other, jostle each other, and vie fiercely for attention. But those, it seems, were the old days. In these new and modern times, these books might be more like close siblings, one irremovably attached to the other, with modern economics leading the new baby, creativity, docilely behind. In this chapter, we briefly examine the history of the concept of and research on creativity in selected Asian contexts and the necessary conditions that have made creativity economics’ closest companion in those countries. Then we propose a general framework by which the two may be securely linked within systems of education.