Rethinking Creativity from the “South”: Alternative Horizons Toward Strengthening Community-Based Well-Being

Abstract

In this chapter, we will discuss the notion of competing sociocultural paradigms, including the ones that bring together perspectives of the South, and their impact on interpreting the concept of creativity. We explore different notions of creativity within the context of our experiences and knowledge of realities of diverse rural communities in Colombia as they have been struggling with a dominant model of development based on the extraction of natural resources. We show how these communities resist and try to make possible the creation of new imaginings of well-being and development. Our discussion is guided by the following two questions: (1) In what sociocultural paradigm and epistemic framework (way of knowing) should we ground our view of the purpose of creative actions? (2) What other possibilities are available beyond the legacy of a colonialist modernity to consider what counts as valid knowledge about creativity? In our conclusions, based on an ongoing educational project developed in different Colombian rural contexts, we outline the necessity of considering cross-cultural dialogue about conceptions and practices of creativity as ways of creating imaginaries of well-being and development anchored into rural communities’ own expectations toward equity, justice, reciprocity, and complementarity.