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The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
by
ARE YOU A CULTURAL CREATIVE?
Do you dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and “making it,” on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods?
Do you care deeply about the destruction of the environment and would pay higher taxes or prices to clean it up and to stop global warming?
Are you unhappy with both the left and the right in politics and want to find ...more
Do you dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and “making it,” on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods?
Do you care deeply about the destruction of the environment and would pay higher taxes or prices to clean it up and to stop global warming?
Are you unhappy with both the left and the right in politics and want to find ...more
Paperback, 370 pages
Published
October 2nd 2001
by Broadway Books
(first published 2000)
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Showing 1-30

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World was a life-changing book.
I do not align with any liberal, democratic, conservative or republican party, as government has failed to tackle the issues addressed in this book.
So, unlike the Amazon.com reviewers, I do not fault the authors of this book for being liberal or left in their politics.
My only beef is not with the book but with the Cultural Creatives ourselves: I regret we lack the political clout to effectively change " ...more
I do not align with any liberal, democratic, conservative or republican party, as government has failed to tackle the issues addressed in this book.
So, unlike the Amazon.com reviewers, I do not fault the authors of this book for being liberal or left in their politics.
My only beef is not with the book but with the Cultural Creatives ourselves: I regret we lack the political clout to effectively change " ...more

Culteral Creatives are those who care deeply about humanity and are committed to saving the planet and pursuing social justice through self-actualization and/or spiritual wisdom. In contrast to Moderns (those who accept current mainstream systems) and Traditionals (those who reject current mainstream systems and look backwards for solutions), Culteral Creatives inwardly depart from the Modern materialistic worldview and seek to go beyond current systems to bridge an old way of life with a new, m
...more

i think the authors missed the boat here--it's not simply that the cultural creatives are changing the world--but HOW are they co-opting power in the name of "good work". who are these cultural creatives? white, middle to upper class, vegetarian, yoga practicing, trader joes shopping, well-educated...etc., etc. (read bobos in paradise for an ironic description.) the concept that these "cultural creatives" are somehow a tiny segment of the population is absurd. i truly believe that this book begs
...more

My only significant criticism is that this book is 100 pages longer than it needs to be.
But it was fun to consider the phenomenon of Cultural Creatives, who they are and what they aspire to. I found reassurance and wisdom in knowing that serious people see the inevitability (and dire necessity) of a world-wide reevaluation of our relationship with each other and the planet.
Nervous reviewers here who feel the need to offer snarky crticism from old binary political poles confirm the very conditio ...more
But it was fun to consider the phenomenon of Cultural Creatives, who they are and what they aspire to. I found reassurance and wisdom in knowing that serious people see the inevitability (and dire necessity) of a world-wide reevaluation of our relationship with each other and the planet.
Nervous reviewers here who feel the need to offer snarky crticism from old binary political poles confirm the very conditio ...more

I like the premise of this book, and certainly felt a fit for myself, looking at the values of the cultural creatives... I suppose I would have enjoyed a shorter treatise on this... after I while, I skimmed and selected sections rather than studiously reading the entire book. Still, it's interesting... I like how premises go "outside the box"--that's a great fit for me!

a must read if you love bridging and fusing cultures together!

Cultural Creatives is THE affirming guidebook for Millenials that need confidence about where we are and where we need to head in the current political climate. Couldn't recommend this more, even with it being decades old information because the projections foretold for 2020 are incredibly on point!!

This extensively researched book has good information about the sector of American society that comprises people who think outside mainstream consumerism. The term "Cultural Creatives" coined by the authors didn't stick and is not commonly used. I got the book to learn how to identify my fellow Americans I would like to connect with. Some information along those lines can be gleaned from this text but don't expect much in terms of practical direction in this regard.

finally a book that describes the cultural group of people I feel at home with!
What a relief! For years I felt a sense of isolation and discomfort with my place in "Mainstream Media Soccer Mom" culture - a growing weariness about the shadowside of modernism's incessant fascination with unbridled materialism devout of spiritual meaning while simultaneously abhorring the neo-traditionalist fundamentalist longing to return to a more orderly authoritarian era that never was...
Now Paul Ray and Sherry ...more
What a relief! For years I felt a sense of isolation and discomfort with my place in "Mainstream Media Soccer Mom" culture - a growing weariness about the shadowside of modernism's incessant fascination with unbridled materialism devout of spiritual meaning while simultaneously abhorring the neo-traditionalist fundamentalist longing to return to a more orderly authoritarian era that never was...
Now Paul Ray and Sherry ...more

In this book, Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson describe a growing cultural movement that transcends political and geographic boundaries. They identify the values that mark Cultural Creatives, and distinguish them from two other main groups in American society: Traditionals and Moderns. The authors assert that the Cultural Creatives are a growing force in our global society, whose beginnings can be traced back to the 60’s. It has taken 40 years for those seeds to take hold, and the authors link
...more

As I said, boring and one-noted. What happens when enough people respond positively to a TEDtalk? Unfortunately, these days you write a book. While this one was first published before TED hit the scene, its combination of storytelling and data will feel familiar to anyone who's spent 20 minutes staring at YouTube watching someone spin a bit of data into thinly veiled pitch for their consultancy or "virtual brand experience creatitorium
I rarely abandon books entirely. This one's going back up on ...more
I rarely abandon books entirely. This one's going back up on ...more

i could be very wrong.
legerdemain with statistics to try to typify 50 million in world who are very special, pro-women, creative, just bonny. Problem is that they aren't that different than many others... and don't self-identify or act in coherent way.
oh well, another book that could have been a New Yorker article and saved a lot of trees.
legerdemain with statistics to try to typify 50 million in world who are very special, pro-women, creative, just bonny. Problem is that they aren't that different than many others... and don't self-identify or act in coherent way.
oh well, another book that could have been a New Yorker article and saved a lot of trees.

A useful description by a sociologist and a pyschologist of the elements of our culture and the addtion of the "creatvies" to the Traditional and modern mindsets that govern the way we operate in socieity. While the book is interesting, it is also very long-winded in a '60s "Peace,man!" -which is to say,not very concrete,sort of way.

I'm really enjoying what I'm learning about this large and largely unknown segment of the U.S. population. As one of them it's encouraging to realize how many of us there are. It may be that the election of Barack Obama is one of the first signs of how much potential impact Cultural Creatives can have when acting in concert.

Jan 19, 2016
Lenny
added it
Easily one of the best, and most accessible books to read about culture change. An inspiration, for me, to ways to face some of the challenges that the dominant culture practices today. Also, very focused on the 'inner' journey; the process and transformation. I really enjoyed this book.

Are you a cultural creative? This is one of many interesting questions posed by this book. Focusing on the distinct values and lifestyles of a subset of the population, I felt like they were profiling my life.
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