Mobile Lives
Unlike the previous phylogenetic and sociogenetic focus, this chapter considers a different timescale: the life-course. By reflecting on how movement and migration define life trajectories, an argument is made that mobile lives are, at once, agentic lives
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Mobile Lives
Abstract Unlike the previous phylogenetic and sociogenetic focus, this chapter considers a different timescale: the life-course. By reflecting on how movement and migration define life trajectories, an argument is made that mobile lives are, at once, agentic lives. Even when personal mobility ‘fails’, its role in expanding our horizon remains. Forced and traumatic migration are discussed as extreme cases that illustrate the delicate balance between movement, possibility and impossibility in the life-course. Keywords Migration · Forced migration · Life course · Agency · Possibility · Impossibility
After taking up my first academic position, in Denmark, I also attended my very first international conference outside Europe—a qualitative research congress in Champaign, Illinois. There I had the good fortune of meeting Zayda Sierra, a colleague from the University of Antioquia in Colombia. She was familiar with some of my work on the sociocultural theory of creativity and excited to collaborate on issues related to sustainability and community mobilisation among rural and indigenous populations in her country. The topic sounded extremely interesting but, initially, it was hard for me to see how my research and expertise—for instance, the Easter egg decoration study I mentioned in the opening © The Author(s) 2020 V. P. Gl˘aveanu, Mobilities and Human Possibility, Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52082-3_5
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of the previous chapter—could shed any light or help in any way the processes Zayda was talking about. I guess the main challenge was moving from the sphere of theoretical ideas about culture, creativity and tradition to understanding how they play out in actual, marginalised communities. And, also, how any social and cultural view of creativity necessarily has political implications in the sense of promoting an agentic view of human beings and fostering their creative participation and empowerment.1 In the end, I had ample opportunities to reflect on these issue,2 and took part together with a group of colleagues from Colombia and Canada in running a large project focused on creativity, sustainability and leadership in rural, indigenous and Afro communities primarily located in Antioquia. I got, on this occasion, not only to travel several times to Colombia and discover its amazing beauty, but to understand the many problems a country as beautiful and rich in resources as Colombia has to deal with. The aftermath of colonisation left a living legacy of exploitation and inequality, especially of rural communities, exacerbated by the series of neoliberal policies and new forms of exploitation brought about by globalisation. Meeting community members and leaders and learning, first-hand, how they are getting mobilised and oftentimes creative in organising peaceful protests and defending local rights and territory was more than inspirational.3 It made me see, for the first time, perhaps, the dark sides of globalisation. As someone who wa
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