Abstract
The present chapter explores agency as a process of group creativity where individuals collaborate using signs with the aim of changing social reality. This is illustrated with a case study of the Egyptian street graffiti that emerged in the first year after protestors took to the streets on 25 January 2011 and on the artwork centered around Tahrir Square. Revolutionaries used graffiti as a tool to communicate their message, claim public space, and make an impact on the public. We look at how revolutionary graffiti emerged as a form of resistance during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, bringing underground artists to the surface in a collaborative effort. The phenomenon is studied from a creativity perspective, discussing what characteristics support seeing this art as an expression of agency through group creativity and what social factors facilitated it to come about. We argue that revolutionary graffiti offers an understanding of creative agency as a collaborative group process using imagination to move beyond reality and present a peaceful and liberating form of expression that would not have emerged individually. Thus, the case study of Egyptian graffiti is used to draw attention to agency found in groups, contrary to Freud’s and Le Bon’s tendencies to relate groups to violence and chaos.
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Awad, S., Wagoner, B. (2015). Agency and Creativity in the Midst of Social Change. In: Gruber, C., Clark, M., Klempe, S., Valsiner, J. (eds) Constraints of Agency. Annals of Theoretical Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10130-9_14
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