Relational Dimension of Creativity

One of the principal objects of study in sociologysociology is that concerning processes, especially those of a culturalcultural naturenature: by the term processprocess we are used to denote “sequences of events, that is, changes in structures, which show some degree of regularity, order, direction, tendency” (Strassoldo, Forma e funzione. Introduzione alla sociologia dell’arte, 2001, p. 216). In Chap. 3 we have seen which processes are related to the concrete expression, stimulation, and developmentdevelopment of that initial move we have called “creativecreative attitude.attitude” We will conclude our analysis with a final summarizing insight to show how the origin (and to some extent, the destiny) of creativecreative energyenergy and the practicespractice aimed at implementing it cannot avoid considering the centrality of the relationalrelational dimension: I admit that this is a choice of field, not unanimously shared, but, in my opinion, it is the most effective in identifying sources and objectives of this “eccentriceccentric” humanhuman potentiality. The principle of “emergenceemergence” proposed here complements and completes (and maybe also surpasses) that of “socialsocial interdependence” of gestalt derivation for which “the whole is different from the sum of its individualindividual parts.” Equally, we can assert that “all creativitycreativity is an emergent processprocess that involves a social groupgroup” (Sawyer, Emergence in Creativity and Development, 2003, p. 19). But the most interesting problem to be solved is not really that of “cooperation”: it is, in fact, prone to an easy reductionism of a merely instrumentalinstrumental naturenature. Moreover, cooperation is not a specifically and exclusively human element, given that many animals are able to compete with us in this area: “Meerkats, moles, many types of social insects, and even bacteria achieve high levels of cooperation” (Tomasello, Why we Cooperate, 2009, It. transl. 2010, p. 118). Instead, we would like to verify the validity of what Martin Buber “intuited” a century ago, applying newnew and updated methodologies of inquiry: “In the beginning is the relationshiprelationship” (Buber, Rede über das Erzieherische, 1926, It. transl. 1993, p. 72).