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The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

Paul H. Ray,

Sherry Ruth Anderson (Goodreads Author)

3.90 · Rating details · 261 ratings · 29 reviews

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

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Paperback, 370 pages

Published October 2nd 2001 by Broadway Books (first published 2000)

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Aug 22, 2012 Christina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: life-changing-books

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

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Jan 05, 2013 Laurie Gray rated it it was amazing

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

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Mar 02, 2009 s rated it liked it

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

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May 14, 2019 H.M. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: activism

★★★★★ The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, by sociologist, Paul H. Ray and psychologist, Sherry Ruth Anderson which came about after 15 years of extensive research is a fascinating, detailed, nuanced and easily-readable work.

This compelling book provides historical and detailed macroscopic overviews, interspersed with microscopic interviews with Cultural Creatives from many walks of life, and the fascinating and inspiring stories they each have to share.

It descri ★★★★★ The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, by sociologist, Paul H. Ray and psychologist, Sherry Ruth Anderson which came about after 15 years of extensive research is a fascinating, detailed, nuanced and easily-readable work.

This compelling book provides historical and detailed macroscopic overviews, interspersed with microscopic interviews with Cultural Creatives from many walks of life, and the fascinating and inspiring stories they each have to share.

It describes the three main categories of people in the Western world: the Moderns, the Traditionals, and the newly-emergent Cultural Creatives.

Just as Idries Shah's seminal work, The Sufis (about the Sufi mystical tradition) was in part a call to the "natural" Sufis in Western society, so this work is a call to the "natural" Cultural Creatives in the world – most of whom do not realize that there are so many others like them; who may feel isolated and misunderstood; perhaps round pegs in square holes; and who don't know how they turned out the way they are.

The modern mainstream, the Moderns, are still running the show after 500 years, and "standing pat"; accepting the system and doing the best they can with the Modern worldview; hanging in there (often unwilling or unable to change), in the face of increasing dysfunction.

The first counterculture, the Traditionals, which was founded c.1870, is "leaning backward" (often to a time or a way of life that never was or can never again come to pass); rejecting the system and reacting against the Modern secular worldview. When Trump came along, they achieved a major resurgence.

And the Cultural Creatives, the new counterculture which was founded around 1970, are "leaning forward"; going beyond the system and inwardly departing from the Modern materialist worldview.

The book describes the history of various social, environmental and consciousness movements that sprang up in the 20th century, the changes that they helped bring about, the increasing role that Cultural Creatives have played in them, and the increasing interconnection and importance of these movements and worldviews.

Warning of the increasing dysfunction of the mainstream Modernism, and the "perfect storm" facing us – politically, culturally, economically, technologically, environmentally, spiritually, psychologically, and physically – the authors go on to describe ways in which we may change at a personal and also a cultural level and emerge through the other side of these immense and growing difficulties, stronger and better integrated. You might liken this process to that of a caterpillar that feeds, then pupates in a hard, protective cocoon, is broken down, and finally through a metamorphosis, it emerges from the cocoon as a butterfly.

Elders; initiation (such as rites of passage); stories that fit the new, emerging worldview; and mythos – which have been largely missing from Modern culture – these things will have a vital part to play both now with us in the "Between" (the interregnum between the Modern and the post-Modern eras at a cultural level, and also in our own personal and spiritual metamorphosis) and also in the new life that awaits us.

Don't be put off by the fact that this was published in 2001: What the authors have to say is even more important and relevant now in 2019, with the rise of Donald Trump, political populism and neoliberalism, the religious right; the newly-declared ecological and climate emergency; and the rise of the Extinction Rebellion movement and schoolgirl activist, Greta Thunberg. ...more

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Aug 14, 2019 Angelica Archangelica rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfic

Dated but relevant, mostly I just read the earlier chapters and skipped all individual anecdotal sections.

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Aug 01, 2016 Charles Goforth rated it liked it

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

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Apr 29, 2008 Katey rated it liked it

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!

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Jul 25, 2011 Chinarut Ruangchotvit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended-to-me, resonates, reread

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

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May 09, 2011 Tara Joyce rated it it was amazing

Learn about your subculture, the Cultural Creatives. I mean really learn about it. See how common our values are. It's a thick read but if you like cultural studies, you'll like this.

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Dec 20, 2008 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bethechange

IF you are a friend of mine you are mostly likely in this demographic... and this is a great read if you want to understand a world changing co-hort - Of which you are in all likelyhood a part...

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Aug 06, 2020 katie rated it liked it

Definitely outdated but still relevant if you are involved with social justice movements. Interesting perspective if you want to get a sense of the history of social movements and the emergence of “Cultural Creatives”.

What is a “Cultural creative” you may ask? From the book, they are described as over 50 million “earth loving, neither right winged or left winged, spiritually religious and socially involved people”. I however, after reading through all the personal anecdotes and hype of their wo Definitely outdated but still relevant if you are involved with social justice movements. Interesting perspective if you want to get a sense of the history of social movements and the emergence of “Cultural Creatives”.

What is a “Cultural creative” you may ask? From the book, they are described as over 50 million “earth loving, neither right winged or left winged, spiritually religious and socially involved people”. I however, after reading through all the personal anecdotes and hype of their work, got a sense that the cultural creatives are actually not that big a group at all. Most of the perspective is that of white, upper class people who may have good intentions but lack knowledge around real climate/social justice work: respecting and uplifting BIPOC, striving for more than using a reusable tote bag/creating a national park (probably stolen from Indigenous people) and not supporting eco-capitalist ideas. What upsets me about the “Cultural Creatives” is that they are described as “not left nor right” but the book and their work itself is leftist (not enough though!) Real social justice work must often align itself with politics. From a current day perspective of a climate justice organizer, Cultural creatives may be a prominent group in society but they’ve evolved into something more than privileged, white, earth-loving, yoga enthusiasts.

I must acknowledge that the book was written before I was even born and a lot had changed since then! It’s great to see the history of social justice with the context of how it’s been viewed mostly from the perspective of upper class white folks. I think that there would be areas of grey where the culture and cultural creatives would meld into one. At times it would be frustrating to read it and it’s probably 100+ pages longer than it needs to be, but I still stuck through it because I think that it’s interesting to see how the emergence of the “Cultural Creatives” has led us here.

It’s might not be the best for those not already heavily involved in social justice movements but I’d recommend it if you are with my first takeaways in mind! If you are new, I implore you to start getting involve with your local climate/social justice groups first!!! ...more

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Dec 19, 2019 Natalía Papadopoúlou rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cultural, sociology

The authors, sociologist and psychologist in profession, conducted research in 100.000 Americans. They figured out there is a third sub-culture emerging beyond the traditionalists and the modernists, the cultural creatives. The cultural creatives believe they are minority, because they are not mainstream to be seen, but they are not. They probably are the drive of the next era after the modern Industrial Age. The book is quite thorough with all the social movements that changed America, and that ...more

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Jan 10, 2019 Ellyn rated it it was amazing

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!!

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Mar 01, 2017 Pranada Comtois rated it liked it

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.

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Jul 25, 2007 Benedict rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-way-of-living

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

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Aug 08, 2012 JoAnn rated it it was amazing

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

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Jan 25, 2016 Web Webster rated it it was ok

Shelves: abandoned

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

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Nov 20, 2013 Websterdavid3 rated it it was ok

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.

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Sep 16, 2011 Laura rated it liked it

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.

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Jan 24, 2009 Mary rated it it was amazing

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.

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Nov 05, 2009 Faye rated it really liked it

Interesting cultural breakdown into Traditionals, Moderns, and Cultural Creatives. Moderns being consumer/career focused and Traditionals wanting to return to "old ways" or their perception of what use to exist. Cultural creatives look forward and are what we are evolving towards, I am there!

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Jul 12, 2008 Mark rated it really liked it

Cultural Creatives is an important idea that needs to be put right up beside Florida's Creative Class. The authors take a sociological lens, not an economic one, in understand the emerging shared values of a sociological grouping with the desire and ability to change everything.

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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.

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May 26, 2006 Annette rated it really liked it

Shelves: creativity, creative, ability, culture, social, life, and

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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