Austerity And The Public Role Of Drama: Performing Lives-In-Common

This book asks what, if any, public role drama might play under Project Austerity – an intensification phase of contemporary liberal political economy. It investigates the erosion of public life in liberal democracies, and critiques the attention economy of deficit culture, by which austerity erodes life-in-common in favour of narcissistic performances of life-in-public. It argues for a social order committed to human flourishing and deliberative democracy, as a counterweight to the political economy of austerity. It demonstrates, using examples from England, Ireland, Italy, and the USA, that drama and the academy pursue shared humane concerns; the one, a critical art form, the other, a social enabler of critical thought and progressive ideas. A need for dialogue with emergent forms of collective consciousness, new democratic practices and institutions, shapes a manifesto for critical performance, which invites universities and cultural workers to join other social actors in imagining and enabling ethical lives-in-common.

• | Author: Victor Merriman
• | Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• | Publication Date: Feb 26, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 185 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 3030032590
• | ISBN-13: 9783030032593