Anthropology, Theatre, and Development

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Reflecting on Political Performance: Introducing Critical Perspectives

   1. Reflecting on Political Performance: Introducing Critical Perspectives

      • Alex Flynn, Jonas Tinius

      Pages 1-28

3. Ethnographies of Political Performance in Developing Contexts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. Interventions

      1. Re-imagining Political Subjectivities: Relationality, Reflexivity, and Performance in Rural Brazil

         • Alex Flynn

         Pages 33-52

      2. Performing Transformation: Cultivating a Paradigm of Education for Cooperation and Sustainability in a Brazilian Community

         • Dan Baron Cohen

         Pages 53-81

      3. Embodying Protest: Culture and Performance within Social Movements

         • Jeffrey S. Juris

         Pages 82-104

   3. Development and Governance

      1. Embodiment, Intellect, and Emotion: Thinking about Possible Impacts of Theatre for Development in Three Projects in Africa

         • Jane Plastow

         Pages 107-126

      2. Resistant Acts in Post-Genocide Rwanda

         • Ananda Breed

         Pages 127-146

      3. Governance, Theatricality, and Fantasma in Mafia Dance

         • Stavroula Pipyrou

         Pages 147-166

4. Theatre as Paradigm for Social Refl ection: Conceptual Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 167-167

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   2. Theatre and Tradition: Politics and Aesthetics

      1. Aesthetic, Ethics, and Engagement: Self-cultivation as the Politics of Refugee Theatre

         • Jonas Tinius

         Pages 171-202

      2. The Invisible Performance/the Invisible Masterpiece: Visibility, Concealment, and Commitment in Graffiti and Street Art

         • Rafael Schacter

         Pages 203-223

      3. Whose Theatre Is It Anyway? Ancient Chorality versus Modern Drama

         • Clare Foster

         Pages 224-257

   3. Political Theatricality

      1. Theatre in the Arab World — Perspectives/Portraits from Lebanon, Syria, and Tunisia

         • Rolf C. Hemke

         Pages 261-278

      2. Pussy Riot’s Moscow Trials: Restaging Political Protest and Juridical Metaperformance

         • Milo Rau

         Pages 279-285

      3. Reinventing the Show Trial: Putin and Pussy Riot

         • Catherine Schuler

         Pages 286-302

   4. Political Theatricality

      1. For a Verbatim Ethnography

         • Nicholas J. Long

         Pages 305-333

      2. The Anthropologist as Ensemble Member: Anthropological Experiments with Theatre Makers

         • Caroline Gatt

         Pages 334-356

5. Back Matter

   Pages 357-368

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The contributors explore diverse contexts of performance to discuss peoples' own reflections on political subjectivities, governance and development. The volume refocuses anthropological engagement with ethics, aesthetics, and politics to examine the transformative potential of political performance, both for individuals and wider collectives.

• Art
• Performance
• Theatre
• Cultural Politics
• Anthropology
• Activism
• Protest
• Politics
• Subjectivity
• Ethics
• Development Studies
• anthropology
• ethnography
• theatre
• development policy

'When is reflection political, ethical? This multidimensional collection on performance as theatre opens up an arena for exploration through the sheer audacity of its scope. Anthropologically informed, diversely interpreted, it is a compelling example of unexpected collaborations.' - Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge, UK

'The conversation between Anthropology, Theatre and Development is long and profound - and this collection deepens it further through a powerful set of analyses that draw on an impressive range of theoretical sources and geographically-located practices. Its breadth is excellent and it will strengthen the thinking, and I hope practice, of those that seek to expand the scope of performance and anthropology scholarship.' - James Thompson, The University of Manchester, UK

'This collective book proposes a lucid rethinking and critique of the field of 'theatre for development'. It is based on the premise that, because of its ineluctable embeddedness in place and locality, engaged performance has a particularly powerful contribution to make to the ever-elusive goal of sustainability. 'Relational' and 'embodied' reflexivity emerge from the rich spectrum of chapters as a compelling new paradigm for political transformation and for an effective theory and practice of sustainability; it also offers an antidote to the detached rationality of globalized modernity and expert-driven development, so essential to healing the ravages on nature,peoples and cultures caused by it. This volume should be read by those working on art and performance, development, and sustainability in fields such as anthropology, geography, politics, and environmental, social movements, and global studies. It constitutes a much welcome and illuminating voice in the cacophony of debates on the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals taking place at present.' - Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

• Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK

  Alex Flynn

• King’s College, UK

  Jonas Tinius

• Division of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK

  Jonas Tinius

Dan Baron Cohen, community-based arts-educator and cultural activist, Brazil. Jane Plastow, Leeds University, UK. Jeffrey S. Juris, Northeastern University, USA. Rolf C. Hemke, Theatre an der Ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. Nicholas J. Long, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Milo Rau, International Institute for Political Murder. Rafael Schacter, University College London, UK. Catherine Schuler, University of Maryland, USA. Caroline Gatt, University of Aberdeen, UK. Stavroula Pipyrou, University of St Andrews, UK. Clare Foster, University College London, UK.

Policies and ethics