Dialectical Performance and Political Economy: Adapting the Brechtian Learning Play to Reimagine 21st Century Social Participation

This thesis explores the adaptation of the Brechtian learning play to thematize political economy. The scope of this work is to articulate a critique of the aspects of economic knowledge determining widespread assumptions on the nature of social participation through a practice of participatory performance that fosters democratic forms of access to and discussion of knowledge, such as the learning play. The thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from critical theory, political economy, and performance studies. Through the methodological frame of Roy Bhaskar’s dialectical critical realism, the study pairs theoretical analysis with the practice-based exploration of the learning play, examining three performance projects that I led between 2021 and 2023 involving higher education students, scholars, and trade union activists. The thesis thus positions practice-based work in a scheme based on Tony Lawson’s theorisation of social ontology, Emiliano Brancaccio’s comparative approach to macroeconomics, Maurizio Lazzarato’s political theory, Diana Taylor’s theorisation of knowledge transmission, and different theorisation of applied and participatory performance. Through theoretical elaboration and the analysis of qualitative data gathered from participants in the practice-based projects, I introduce the following contributions: 1) I expand the scope for the thematization of political life through practices of applied and participatory performance, addressing limitations in the existing theoretical models. 2) I provide an otherwise absent methodology for the vulgarization of economic knowledge and social sciences based on concepts distinctive of performance studies such as kinaesthetic engagement and embodied cognition. 3) I reshape the evaluation criteria for arts-based interventions discussing political participation by reframing the nature of relations of dissent and contrast through a dialectical approach. 4) I provide a multilayered and non-hierarchical framework matching practice-based research as a tool distinctive of performance studies with other forms of theoretical elaboration distinctive of political economy and the social sciences, expanding the possibilities for interdisciplinary work.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Sani, Francesco Saverio

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/5e4ac630-6b18-4149-bb67-4364c8eee397/download