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

几个世纪以来，戏剧一直被用作工人运动的鼓动和组织工具，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。以前的研究表明，这些策略可能是有效的，事实上，而不是一个附加或事后的政治组织，性能是不可分割的工人运动的衔接和功能。还有证据表明，除了对特定运动产生影响外，表演还可以通过产生想法、感受和共同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行动主义的研究，但到目前为止，还没有深入研究这一问题与当代工人运动的具体关系。最近对绩效行动主义的分析与对20世纪世纪有组织劳工运动的绩效方法的历史研究之间也存在脱节。尽管国际劳工运动在充满挑战的21世纪背景下继续发展，其活动家承认其政治前辈的创造性遗产对当前运动的重要性。本研究首先假设，以获得一个整体的理解如何表现在当前的政治领域运作，必须参加这些连接。具体而言，它研究了如何表现目前部署的形式宣传剧场，直接行动的战术，并作为一种政治组织的劳工运动活动家，考虑到特定的方法的历史血统。该奖学金将为我提供时间，导师和发展机会，我需要建立在我以前的工作与工会和戏剧制作人开发这个前沿的研究议程，并巩固我作为工人运动文化专家的地位。除了研究尚未受到学术关注的重大抗议和表演外，我还将揭示未被充分利用和迄今未被发现的档案，包括个人和公共收藏。项目合作伙伴和一个国际顾问委员会已经到位，以支持这一活动，并支持工人运动中绩效的协作理论的发展，该理论将通过集中生产者的目标和专业知识来挑战现有知识。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，以建立对业绩的认识，因为它被用于社会正义。这些讲习班还有可能在实地促成新的做法，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参与，鼓励戏剧和表演，艺术和劳工运动历史，政治和社会运动理论的学者之间的跨学科交流，并促进来自不同背景的人与材料，实践和辩论的参与。这些资源包括一个学术专著，一个专门的，开源的档案，并通过埃克塞特的扩大参与方案的大学开发的六年级学生的教学丰富研讨会。我将通过PDRF的监督获得领导和管理技能，PDRF是一名活动家，实践者，其同行评审的文章将在该领域进行重要干预。该奖学金作为一个发射台进入我们的职业生涯的下一阶段，同时创造一个不可或缺的资源，以增加访问和工人阶级和活动家文化的理解。

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.