Performing Resistance: the role of theatre and performance in 21st-century workers' movements

几个世纪以来，剧院一直被用作工人运动中煽动和组织的工具，而运动积极分子则排练、编排和表演抗议和直接行动策略，以实现他们的政治目标。之前的研究表明，这些策略可能是有效的，事实上，表现对于工人运动的表达和功能是不可或缺的，而不是对政治组织的补充或事后考虑。也有证据表明，除了对具体的运动产生影响外，表演还可以通过产生想法、情感和共同的活动来建立集体意识和生活方式，从而帮助运动凝聚和持久。然而，尽管近年来积累了大量关于绩效激进主义的研究，但到目前为止，还没有关于这一点如何具体与当代工人运动相关的深入研究。最近对绩效激进主义的分析，与对20世纪有组织劳工运动基于绩效的方法的历史研究之间也存在脱节。尽管国际劳工运动在具有挑战性的21世纪背景下继续发展，但该运动的活动人士承认，他们的政治前辈的创造性遗产在当前的竞选活动中具有重要意义。这项研究首先假设，要全面了解当前政治领域的绩效是如何运作的，就必须注意这些联系。具体地说，它考察了工人运动活动家目前是如何以鼓动戏剧、直接行动战术的形式以及作为一种政治组织模式来部署表演的，同时考虑到具体方法的历史渊源。该奖学金将为我提供所需的时间、指导和发展机会，以便在我之前与工会和戏剧制作人的工作基础上，制定这一尖端研究议程，并巩固我作为劳工运动文化专家的地位。除了审查尚未受到学术关注的重大抗议和表演外，我还将揭露未得到充分利用和迄今未被发现的档案，包括个人和公共收藏。已经建立了项目合作伙伴和一个国际咨询委员会，以支持这项活动和发展关于工人运动绩效的合作理论，该理论将通过集中制定者的目标和专门知识来挑战现有知识。一个由活动家领导的研讨会计划将阐明绩效如何融入在英国、巴西和印度工作的团体的日常活动中，试验创新的研究方法，并产生新的知识和材料，以建立对绩效的认识，因为绩效被用于社会正义。这些讲习班还有可能促进实地的新做法，并影响劳工流动政策。进一步的培训和支持将使我能够创建活动和资源，以深化与关键主题的学科互动，鼓励戏剧和表演、艺术和劳工运动历史以及政治和社会运动理论的学者之间的跨学科交流，并促进不同背景的人参与材料、实践和辩论。这些资源包括一本学术专著、一个专门建造的开放源码档案，以及通过埃克塞特大学的扩大参与方案为六年级学生开发的教学充实讲习班。我将通过PDRF的监督来获得领导力和管理技能。PDRF是一名激进的实践者，他为一家领先期刊撰写的同行评议文章将在该领域进行重要干预。该奖学金是进入我们职业生涯下一阶段的发射台，同时创造了一个不可或缺的资源，以增加对工人阶级和积极分子文化的接触和了解。

Theatre has been used as a tool for agitation and organisation in workers' movements for centuries, while movement activists have rehearsed, choreographed, and performed protests and direct-action tactics to achieve their political goals. Previous research has suggested that these strategies can be effective, and, in fact, that rather than an add-on or afterthought to political organising, performance is integral to the articulation and function of workers' movements. There is also evidence to suggest that as well as having an impact on specific campaigns, performance can help a movement cohere and endure, by generating ideas, feelings, and shared activities to build a collective consciousness and a way of life. However, while a vibrant body of research on performance-activism has accumulated in recent years, so far, no in-depth examination exists as to how this pertains to contemporary workers' movements, specifically. There is also a disconnect between recent analyses of performance-activism and historical research on performance-based approaches of organised labour movements of the 20th century. This is despite the international labour movement continuing to evolve in challenging 21st-century contexts, whose activists acknowledge the significance of the creative legacies of their political predecessors on current campaigns. This study starts with the hypothesis that to gain a holistic understanding of how performance operates in the current political sphere, one must attend to these connections. Specifically, it examines how performance is currently deployed by labour movement activists in the form of agitprop theatre, direct-action tactics, and as a mode of political organisation, taking into account the historical lineage of specific approaches. The Fellowship will provide me with the time, mentorship, and development opportunities I need to build on my prior work with trade unions and theatre-makers to develop this cutting-edge research agenda and solidify my position as an expert on labour movement culture. As well as examining significant protests and performances that have not yet received academic attention, I will bring to light underused and, until now, undiscovered archives, including personal and public collections. Project partners and an international advisory board are in place to support this activity and the development of a collaborative theory of performance in workers' movements that will challenge existing knowledge by centring the aims and expertise of those who produce it. A programme of activist-led workshops will illuminate how performance is folded into the day-to-day activity of groups working in the UK, Brazil, and India, pilot innovative research methods, and generate new knowledge and materials to build awareness of performance as it is harnessed for social justice. The workshops also have the potential to catalyse new practice in the field, and to influence labour movement policy. Further training and support will enable me to create activities and resources to deepen disciplinary engagement with key themes, encourage cross-disciplinary exchange between scholars of theatre and performance, art and labour movement history, and political and social movement theory, and facilitate the engagement of people from various backgrounds with materials, practices, and debates. These resources include an academic monograph, a purpose-built, open-source archive, and a Teaching Enrichment Workshop for sixth-form students developed through the University of Exeter's Widening Participation programme. I will gain leadership and management skills through the supervision of the PDRF, an activist-practitioner whose peer-reviewed article for a leading journal will make an important intervention in the field. The Fellowship acts as a launchpad into the next phase of our careers while creating an indispensable resource to increase access to and understanding of working class and activist culture.