Arts-based methods for transformative engagement : A toolkit

Pearson, Kelli Rose; Bäckman, Malin; Grenni, Sara; Moriggi, Angela; Pisters, Siri Renée; Vrieze, Anke de

doi:10.18174/441523

Cited by 37 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Artists who understand the language of cultural values and how they are embodied and represented can re-evaluate and recontextualize them (Whitehead, 2006). For example, creative-artistic practices can shift awareness and openness towards more-than-human worlds (Tàbara and Chabay, 2013), providing access to different sources of cognitive, emotional and sensual experiences (Pearson et al, 2018) and address the barrier of cultural identity through new stories (Stoknes, 2015).…”

Section: Perspective-takingmentioning

confidence: 99%

ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

Bentz

O’Brien

2019

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Young people represent a powerful force for social change, and they have an important role to play in climate change responses. However, empowering young people to be "systems changers" is not straightforward. It is particularly challenging within educational systems that prioritize instrumental learning over critical thinking and creative actions. History has shown that by creating novel spaces for reflexivity and experimentation, the arts have played a role in shifting mindsets and opening up new political horizons. In this paper, we explore the role of art as a driver for societal transformation in a changing climate and consider how an experiment with change can facilitate reflection on relationships between individual change and systems change. Following a review of the literature on transformations, transformative learning and the role of art, we describe an experiment with change carried out with students at an Art High School in Lisbon, Portugal, which involved choosing one sustainable behavior and adopting it for 30 days. A transformative program encouraged regular reflection and group discussions. During the experiment, students started developing an art project about his or her experience with change. The results show that a transformative learning approach that engages students with art can support critical thinking and climate change awareness, new perspectives and a sense of empowerment. Experiential, arts-based approaches also have the potential to create direct and indirect effects beyond the involved participants. We conclude that climate-related art projects can serve as more than a form of science communication. They represent a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with agency and a stake in sustainability transformations.

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Section: Perspective-takingmentioning

confidence: 99%

ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

Bentz

O’Brien

2019

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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“…Transformation to sustainability requires 'change from inside-out', which entails a shift in mindsets, engaging with emotions and changing cultural narratives and worldviews (O'Brien 2013). SUSPLACE showed how arts-based approaches and techniques can open spaces of possibility in people's imagination, thereby evoking such a shift in mindsets (Pearson et al 2018). Pisters et al (2020) explore the dimension of consciousness in sustainability transformations and how this shapes sustainability and place-shaping.…”

Section: Exploring the Transformative Capacity Of Place-shaping Practmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This resulted in an overall theoretical and methodological approach to place-based sustainable development and joint outputs. Besides articles in scientific journals, a toolkit on arts-based methods for transformative engagement (Pearson et al 2018) and a guide for policy-makers and practitioners to place-based working and co-production (Quinn and De Vrieze 2019) have been published. The 15 research projects cover a wide range of place-shaping practices embedded in specific settings, exploring pathways to place-based sustainable development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices

et al. 2020

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The eight papers in this Special Feature result from the EU funded SUSPLACE collaborative programme that aimed to explore the transformative capacity of sustainable place-shaping practices, and if and how these practices can support a sustainable, place-based development. The programme encompassed 15 research projects investigating a wide range of place-shaping practices embedded in specific settings. From a common framework on sustainable place shaping, each research project has developed its own theoretical and methodological approach. This editorial explains the overall approach to sustainable place-based development and more specifically the three analytical dimensions of transformative practices, that together propell sustainable place-shaping: re-appreciation, re-grounding and re-positioning. After an overview of the eight articles, the contribution to sustainability sciences is discussed. The research programme has provided insight into the transformative agency of practitioners and policymakers engaged in shaping sustainable places, as well as the transformative role of researchers.

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“…It was developed alongside the needs expressed by the town's planning department, culminating in a series of workshops to explore local cultural narratives rooted in the sense of place (Grenni et al 2019). The workshops were structured around a co-creation exercise informed by previous work on arts-based methods for transformative engagement developed within SUSPLACE (Pearson et al 2018). Participants were initially given prompts to express current representation of their town on a map along with the meanings and values they attach to the place.…”

Section: Experiencing Placementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants were initially given prompts to express current representation of their town on a map along with the meanings and values they attach to the place. Following it, they were prompted to co-create storylines of desirable futures for their town and express them visually through a collage, to harness intuitive knowing and aesthetic sense-making (Butler-Kisber and Poldma 2010; Pearson et al 2018). The resulting narratives represented aspirational ideas of possible futures, reflective of the participants' sense of place and openly acknowledging local needs and values.…”

Section: Experiencing Placementioning

confidence: 99%

Transformative roles of people and places: learning, experiencing, and regenerative action through social innovation

et al. 2019

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This paper discusses the transformative role of people and the places which they inhabit. It advocates the richness and multiplicity of actors and understandings to drive sustainable place-shaping practices. Grounded in the interdisciplinary placebased conceptualisation of social innovation, the paper aims to progress a holistic conceptual framework which integrates the active processes of learning, experiencing, and regeneration to tackle the complex challenges of sustainability. The discussion argues for moving beyond the conceptual deliberations into practice-based research. The framework proposed brings together three different lenses: first, transformative learning as an approach to experiential pedagogy with focus on education and learning based in local communities and the surrounding places; second, experiencing place through sense-making to help people relate closely to their values and meanings of place; third, regenerative action to reverse and recuperate from the negative impact of humans on the environment and promote place stewardship. Through a dynamic combination of these processes, new socially innovative agency is created. Empirical examples of this agency have been captured in this paper from a series of projects which were part of the SUSPLACE programme. In conclusion, we associate the interactive nature of this agency with sustainable re-learning, re-experiencing, and re-generation processes to reshape places in a transformative way.

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Arts-based methods for transformative engagement : A toolkit

Cited by 37 publications

References 4 publications

ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

Exploring the transformative capacity of place-shaping practices

Transformative roles of people and places: learning, experiencing, and regenerative action through social innovation

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