Social pedagogy is inherently creative. Over the last ten years it has attracted wider attention in the UK because of its focus on providing solutions for social isolation and social exclusion, not just at the level of the individual and their community, but at broader societal levels. These debates have been framed as a response to the more managerial approaches in established forms of intervention such as social and youth work. A key element of social pedagogy is creativity and the co-production of solutions, recognising that the problems faced by people are complex and have unique aspects. They therefore require an equal partnership between the professionals and the people with whom they work to understand their lived experience and jointly develop meaningful responses. Creativity plays a crucial part in this dialogical process.

Today, creative thinking is highly relevant to social work and other social and educational professions. Through its holistic relationship-centred approach, social pedagogy can offer a beneficial perspective that encourages creative/divergent thinking as well as the integration of expressive arts and other creative methods into everyday practice of working with people in a broad range of contexts.

This special series of the International Journal of Social Pedagogy aims to explore these issues in greater detail.  Articles published draw on a wide range of topics from across the social professions to discuss these forms of creative activity, including theatre and drama, film, poetry, music, and symbols.  Overall, we hope that they provide creative insights into:

• Using creativity within higher education settings
• How creativity can enhance practice interventions 
• Co-production and creativity 
• Co-creation through the ‘common third’ 
• Creativity, ‘Haltung’, realising potential and promoting a holistic view of people using our services 
• Creativity across the life course – exploration of the way creativity can be used with diverse populations 
• Arts and creativity – beyond therapy  

Publication date: From February - April 2021. 

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Guest Editor

Dr Kieron Hatton, School of Health Sciences and Social Work, University of Portsmouth, UK.

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Article list 

Research article

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Practice paper

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Conceptual critique

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