Playback Theatre, social justice and empathy: A diffractive review

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between social justice and Playback Theatre practice. In lieu of a diffractive approach, this study breaks away from representational forms of research such as the traditional literature review. Instead, the author strives to review the selected studies as alive and dynamic, with the ability to activate new insights when creatively played with and re-examined. This review traces selected Playback Theatre research that has sought a deeper understanding of empathy in Playback Theatre practice and its relationship with social justice. The author foregrounds what has resulted from these studies regarding empathy in Playback Theatre and their relationship with Nancy Fraser’s social justice model, particularly the cultural dimension of recognition. This review offers a social justice definition relevant to Playback Theatre while seeking to explore how this informs the artistic dimension of Playback Theatre enactments.

Intersectional research in adult education: A diffractive gaze

“…(Barad, 2007, p. 171) As we engaged in the process of reading the selected IR (e.g., Jackson & Mazzei, 2011;Li, 2023;Mazzei, 2014;Murris & Bozalek, 2019a, 2019bMerten, 2021) we were becoming with the texts as "we are part of and with the world" (Murris & Bozalek, 2019a, p. 1508 and not to carelessly criticize the IR articles and/or AE theory and practice in a disruptive way (Murris & Bozalek, 2019b). We were neither looking to be critical nor to find a "lack" in the IR articles and/or AE theory and practice but to allow the diffraction to illuminate difference that may be productive and timely in the context of AE (e.g., Barolsky, 2021; Nicolaides & Scully-Russ, 2018) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989;1991).…”

What is the problem of inequality, and can we solve it?

“…Although coming from a different scholarly tradition to those making the claims above, Nancy Fraser's (2007) model for understanding justice in a globalised world is attuned to these ideas. It is also a theory of justice that informs recent scholarship in participatory theatre (Barolsky, 2021; Removed for review 1; Neelands, 2007). Like SDG10 and the papers in applied theatre reviewed above, Fraser considers exclusion to be key to the identification and explanation of injustice.…”