This is an SMU-XO course which focuses on an advanced understanding of the theoretical and empirical work on the psychological studies of the relationship between culture and creativity/innovation, as well as relevant areas. Integrating theoretical and applied solutions, students will visit a country in Asia to study the specific psychological topics in real-life contexts. The pre-trip preparatory sessions will lay the foundation for the components of the course that will be carried out in the form of solution-generation project or case study in the visited country.
Since globalization and innovation are two key forces that shape individual and business success in the 21st century, this course aims to enhance students’ understanding on how people can utilize their cultural knowledge to generate creative and innovative ideas, by means of integrating different perspectives, theories, strategies, and technologies. In this multicultural environment, people must collaborate effectively across cultural borders, broadly defined, to solve pressing problems and to develop new products and solutions that will appeal to the global market. Cultural and creative industries are one of such sectors that emphasizes culture as the foundation for developing and supporting industries through creativity (e.g., cultural tourism, community cultural development, performing art, product design). Via collaborating with the students and faculty members in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at the National Cheng Kung University, SMU students will have hands-on cross-cultural collaboration experiences with their Taiwanese counterparts. Through participating in class discussions and learning different case studies of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries during the field trip, students will receive ample opportunities to sharpen their cultural knowledge and skills and to apply these new insights to benefit creative productions in the real world. Students will also gain cultural immersive experiences through conducting in-depth analysis of the business client in their SMU-NCKU work team. At the end of the course, students will be able to integrate theories of culture, psychology, and design thinking to broaden their knowledge about the development and sustainability of cultural and creative industries. They might also identify from the insights gained from the Taiwan cases to benefit the cultural and creative industries in Singapore.