Cultivating Creative Coexistence(s): towards a critical education for creativity praxis to construct fairer human coexistences

Abstract

Creative education is a central theme in a world where the division between human and intelligent machines produces new work and social relationships. Many researchers and educators reproduce a controversial discourse where being creative is mandatory to ”succeed” professionally and personally in the Creative Society. Situated in a participatory action research project conducted with socioeconomically vulnerable young people and their social educators in Brazil, we draw on learned lessons from this project to challenge such a discourse by introducing the notion of Creative Coexistence(s). We introduce this notion and discuss four pillars that sustain it and give people a base to promote creativity as a means to produce fairer human coexistence(s). By developing a critical discussion on the literature, and by presenting five scenarios on creative coexistence(s) activities, we elaborate and discuss the four pillars to cultivate creative coexistence(s): 1.Questioning the Creative Society, 2.Freirean-Papertian praxis, 3.Young people as (re)makers, and 4.Coexistence-centered experiences.