The Liminal Microgenesis of the Cultural Cycle in the Sensemaking Process: A Dynamic Approach to the Study of Culture as Form (Morphogenesis) and Text (Textualization)

Abstract

The paper addresses the complex theme of culture understood as a dynamic, contextual, and relational semiotic process, which develops processuality through recursive cycles of crisis, reconfigurations, stabilizations, and further transitions. Culture is interpreted as a semiotic process of sensemaking that transcends the distinction between nature and culture, grounded in the complementary operations of both modus tollens (the pruning and reduction of potentialities) and modus ponens (the development and articulation of specific possibilities). The cultural process of sensemaking is viewed as a triadic activity in which the sign emerges from progressive interactions between the subject, alterity, and context, within a multidimensional topological field characterized by continuity and discontinuity. This theoretical perspective complementarily develops a morphogenetic approach and a textual approach , highlighting the importance of bordering, facing with limits and crises as processes that trigger cultural development. The perspective emphasizes the importance of observing emergent relations and dynamics, rather than merely contents, to understand the processes of signification in their constant becoming.