PERF219 Chapter 18: Introduction to Participation
Chapter Summary
Textbook: The Applied Theatre Reader, edited by Tim Prentki
and Sheila Preston, Routledge, 2009.
Chapter 18 – Introduction to Participation
By Sheila Preston (pp.127-129)
- Encouraging participation is both pragmatic and ethical for pedagogy.
- Drama is energetic and active and can be used to bring people from all kinds of
backgrounds together in the same activity.
- The aim of participation is far from trouble-free in practice.
- Genuine participation is complex.
- There are a myriad of agendas, power relations and competing ideological interests
rife in most projects and settings.
- Gramsci’s seminal writing on hegemony offers a means by which to critically analyse
common sense notions of participation.
oHegemony: the spontaneous consent given by the great masses of the
population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant
fundamental group.
- The feeling of participation is a form of compliance with a social order.
- Compliance serves many functions in society.
- Participation can serve to reproduce the hegemony or counter it.
- Enabling collective participation is critical to the transformative nature of a project.
- The relationship the facilitator creates with the participants is co-intentional.
- Co-intentional participation may conflict with the starting point of those
participating as they may want to preserve the hegemony rather than transform it.
Types of Participation
- Typology of participation – possible participative relationships applicable to any
project or project aspect.
- Passive participation: people are privy to what will occur/already has occurred.
- Participation in information gathering: answering questions from researchers via
survey/questionnaire.
- Participation for material incentives: people provide resources in return for material
incentives.
- Functional participation: people participate through group formation and desire to
com0lete a project objective.
- Interactive participation: people participate in joint analysis, leading to action plans
and formation of new local institutions or the strengthening of existing ones.
- Self-mobilisation: participation through taking on initiatives independent of external
institutions to change systems.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Textbook: the applied theatre reader, edited by tim prentki and sheila preston, routledge, 2009. Encouraging participation is both pragmatic and ethical for pedagogy. Drama is energetic and active and can be used to bring people from all kinds of backgrounds together in the same activity. The aim of participation is far from trouble-free in practice. There are a myriad of agendas, power relations and competing ideological interests rife in most projects and settings. The feeling of participation is a form of compliance with a social order. Participation can serve to reproduce the hegemony or counter it. Enabling collective participation is critical to the transformative nature of a project. The relationship the facilitator creates with the participants is co-intentional. Co-intentional participation may conflict with the starting point of those participating as they may want to preserve the hegemony rather than transform it. Typology of participation possible participative relationships applicable to any project or project aspect.
