The Work of Performativity: Staging Social Justice at the University of Southern California

Abstract

In this paper we offer an alternative reading of the role of performativity and everyday forms of resistance in current geographic literature. We make a case for thinking about performativity as a form of embodied dialectical praxis via a discussion of the ways in which performativity has been recently understood in geography. Turning to the tradition of Marxist revolutionary theater, we argue for the continued importance of thinking about the power of performativity as a socially transformative, imaginative, and collective political engagement that works simultaneously as a space of social critique and as a space for creating social change. We illustrate our point by examining two different performative strategies employed by food service workers at the University of Southern California in their struggle for a fair work contract and justice on the job.

Four-wheel drivescapes: Embodied understandings of the Kimberley

“…Yet, amongst some post-structuralist feminist geographers, a sense of unease exists in regards to how the body and bodily practices are conceptualised within nonrepresentational theory (Nash, 2000;Houston and Pulido, 2002;Thien, 2005). They express caution in regards to an apolitical tendency of non-representational theory highlighted by comparisons with Butler's (1990Butler's ( , 1993 rethinking of the gendered and sexed body.…”

Collaboration as Resistance? Reconsidering the processes, products, and possibilities of feminist oral history and ethnography

“…This recognition that critical scholarship must communicate with more than one audience emerges from of the conviction that there are many levels on which intellectual and political intervention is necessary to effect social change (Houston & Pulido, 2002). Acting upon this conviction implies embracing the challenges of finding acceptable research methods for chosen audiences, a clear conceptualization of accountability, and a conscious destabilizing of dominant assumptions about who can produce knowledge.…”

“…Edmonson, 1993;Kerr, 2003;Rouverol, 2003); those who focus on the products of collaboration (Houston & Pulido, 2002); and some who attempt to discuss both aspects in the same projects (Frisch, 1990). There is serious and promising work to be done to bridge the divide between processes and products.…”

Theatre as safe space? Performing intergenerational narratives with men of Irish descent

“…It was 'used to connote metaphorical safety: that is, a space bordered by temporal dimensions (such as a workshop or rehearsal time/space) in which discriminatory activities, expressions of intolerance or policies of inequity are barred' (Hunter, 2008, p. 8). Geographers have already investigated the theatre as a politicised space (Houston & Pulido, 2002;Nash, 2000;Pratt & Johnston, 2007;Rogers, 2010Rogers, , 2011; indeed Pratt and Kirby (2003, p. 19) acknowledge a political dimension in their theatre project with a nurses union -'to tell stories in the context of a play seemed safer'. More recently, Johnston and Bajrange (2014) have explored the politics of street theatre and specifically the potential of theatre as a socio-spatial tactic for public intervention.…”