'Critical Play': participatory tactics for radical citizenship.
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Bartlett Sch of Planning
Abstract
The recent social unrest in Chile has generated the need amongst citizens and the civil society to come together to discuss about the issues fuelling public discontent. Many different initiatives have called for active forms of citizenship in voicing and articulating a reflective debate on social, economic and urban inequality. From mass mobilisation and social protests, to participatory urban performances and self-organised or convocated cabildos, civic participation in its many forms have taken over the streets.
Since the 1960s, a 'participatory turn' has helped reshape societies and the public sphere, by inviting citizens to become empowered through participation in decision-making processes. In Chile today, in a climate of social, cultural and political unrest, participation is being enacted through 'invented spaces' (Cornwall, 2007) that blur the boundaries between the social, the political and the arts.
These radical forms of participation suggest a potential to re-evaluate traditional approaches, which tend to be bound up in a disciplinary remit or field and constrained by the limitations they impose - whether it be in realms as diverse as governance, international development, urban design and planning, or the arts, amongst others. The intention of this research is to understand the potential that an interdisciplinary approach to participation might bring in delivering the commonly shared ideals of engagement, collaboration, empowerment, capability and political agency, that strictly disciplinary practices have arguably failed to deliver (Bishop, 2004; Gaventa and Cornwall, 2006; Hickey and Mohan, 2004).
The particular approach of this research is underpinned by the concept of 'critical play'; that is, the idea that 'play' and the play element in culture (Huizinga, 1949; Arendt, 1982; Sutton-Smith, 1997; Caillois and Barash, 2001, Bakhtin, 1981), when used as a critical tool for civic engagement, can advance the radical and transformative potential of participation. Promoting this concept as a theoretical and methodological framework, the research will explore the way in which participatory processes as 'critical play', can mediate the performative (Butler, 2009; Harvie, 2013), the contextual (Haraway, 1988; Rose, 1997), the relational (Bourriaud, 2002), the pedagogical (Freire, 1977), the dialogical (Gadamer, 2003), the aesthetical and the political (Rancière, 2004).
These ideas will be examined in the context of Chile's current climate of political polarisation and social unrest, through research into practices and forms of civic engagement that blur the boundaries between politics, the arts and social activism, alongside tactical interventions in the form of participatory action research (PAR). The research will measure the extent to which 'critical play', as a design methodology can help reconceptualise participation as a radical form of citizenship.
Since the 1960s, a 'participatory turn' has helped reshape societies and the public sphere, by inviting citizens to become empowered through participation in decision-making processes. In Chile today, in a climate of social, cultural and political unrest, participation is being enacted through 'invented spaces' (Cornwall, 2007) that blur the boundaries between the social, the political and the arts.
These radical forms of participation suggest a potential to re-evaluate traditional approaches, which tend to be bound up in a disciplinary remit or field and constrained by the limitations they impose - whether it be in realms as diverse as governance, international development, urban design and planning, or the arts, amongst others. The intention of this research is to understand the potential that an interdisciplinary approach to participation might bring in delivering the commonly shared ideals of engagement, collaboration, empowerment, capability and political agency, that strictly disciplinary practices have arguably failed to deliver (Bishop, 2004; Gaventa and Cornwall, 2006; Hickey and Mohan, 2004).
The particular approach of this research is underpinned by the concept of 'critical play'; that is, the idea that 'play' and the play element in culture (Huizinga, 1949; Arendt, 1982; Sutton-Smith, 1997; Caillois and Barash, 2001, Bakhtin, 1981), when used as a critical tool for civic engagement, can advance the radical and transformative potential of participation. Promoting this concept as a theoretical and methodological framework, the research will explore the way in which participatory processes as 'critical play', can mediate the performative (Butler, 2009; Harvie, 2013), the contextual (Haraway, 1988; Rose, 1997), the relational (Bourriaud, 2002), the pedagogical (Freire, 1977), the dialogical (Gadamer, 2003), the aesthetical and the political (Rancière, 2004).
These ideas will be examined in the context of Chile's current climate of political polarisation and social unrest, through research into practices and forms of civic engagement that blur the boundaries between politics, the arts and social activism, alongside tactical interventions in the form of participatory action research (PAR). The research will measure the extent to which 'critical play', as a design methodology can help reconceptualise participation as a radical form of citizenship.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Camillo Boano (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Catalina Pollak (Student) |