White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 3world. But it is also a very specialsystem of dividing labour. In fact it isone of the largest in the world and ischaracterised by the fact that millionsof people are involved in a cooperative-competitiveactivity withoutany previous knowledge of theirpartners. And in a highly risky contextin which reaching a specific objective– getting to a destination safe andsound – mainly depends on complyingto essentially non-written rules andconventions, while everything takesplace in conditions of extreme speedand unpredictability. Studies ondriving have often focused on thepsychological aspects and the aspectsof perception, such as visibility andposition of signals. Little attention hasbeen dedicated, however, to social andcultural factors which affect drivers’performances, such as respecting rulesand understanding the laws. And thesefactors are crucial, because much ofthe smooth working of the trafficsystem depends on them.This simply means that our everydayexperience of driving, with itsattendant real dangers, is regulated byconventions and regulations whosecomprehension is crucial for individualsurvival but which are not reallyconsidered systematically by decisionmakers.All of this leads us to anotheraspect. The “space of flows” generatedby the automobile system is part of thepublic space. We move throughsquares and streets not only on footbut also in vehicles. The driving spaceis thus one of those socialenvironments recently shaped bymodernity and which depend greatlyon the public culture of eachcommunity. In turn, the ways weinteract during these long hours ascitizens of the mobile city, engaged inthe co-operative and competitiveexercise of the division of labour,reinforces customs and approaches tosocial relations. An average welleducatedmiddle-class man may betransformed by road rage if his path issuddenly crossed incorrectly. But it isprecisely the perception that agenerally accepted rule has beenviolated by a cyclist or jaywalker whichgenerates the highest level ofaggressiveness, as can be seen whenobserving drivers. There is no roomfor doubt: the driver’s etiquettereflects a larger system of customs andbehaviour belonging to each specificplace, within the regional or nationalculture.In reality the interrelation betweenprivate and public is much morecomplex than appears. Public spacemay not only be an extension to orcomplement private space but mayalso be dialectically opposed to it. Thefinal result may be obtained bysubtraction, when public space isconsidered as what is left over fromthe private sphere of life. “Citieswithout civic communities” is aconcept which has been discussed indepth by Yanis Pyrgiotis (Delors,1994: 173), especially with reference tosouthern European cities, in whichdressing up the city for foreigners isconsidered a waste of money and thereis no interest in the “public eye” andits related consciousness (Sennett,1992). The lack of a public eye orWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 65