Staging and Performing Translation: Text and Theatre Practice (Cultural Criminology)

It attempts to have a strong audience connection and can be found in comedy performance, in drama therapy and forms of political theatre. It can be performed with an audience of individuals with health or other problems and relevant professionals and could be considered as a form of drama therapy. It is also influenced by the work of BOAL, oral history and story-telling tradition. Members of an audience are invited to provide personal stories which are then improvised by actors and musicians ROWE, Psychodrama was developed by Jacob L. MORENO as a part of psychotherapeutic work which incorporates theatrical elements "consisting essentially in getting an individual to reproduce spontaneously on a stage, and before an audience in some cases, the structure of a situation already discovered to be highly significant T his method has also been employed for group psychotherapy, and when specifically employed for this purpose it becomes sociodrama" DREVER, , pp.

Psychodrama inspired "Drama Therapy" that has many varieties improvisational, games, role-play, etc. Traditional Art Therapy continues to be a "diagnostic" tool in psychotherapy, rather than an actual "therapeutic" activity. An interesting "classic" ethnographic study relevant here is PANETH's research and work with "slum" children in wartime London, which included the drawings that they produced.

Here, there are connections, in the use of art or other activities, with adventure playgrounds, play centres and detached youth work—and with local communal projects. While both drama therapy and art therapy have particular objectives, they both aim to improve individual well being and personal development.

It can be argued that all theatre is in some sense "political" in that any performance can induce some change, however small, in audience members. But, an overt political intent has been "accepted as defining a left-wing theatre, critical of the capitalist system and expressing in its work the need for radical change" GOORNEY, , p. During the late s, in Britain, there were several hundred theatre groups associated with the Left Book Club Theatre and the Communist Party. By the late s much of this activity had faded due to the rise of the Popular Front across the Left, the fall in unemployment and the turn towards fighting Fascism.

In the immediate post-war period Theatre Workshop toured working class areas and local community theatres began.

Staging and Performing Translation - Text and Theatre Practice (Hardcover)

The "alternative theatre" of today began during the s with the formation of various left-wing groups, who began to receive some public subsidy GOORNEY, In the late s and early s socialist and other radical theatre groups, in Britain, began to raise important social issues e. Communal groups carrying out local histories of place or local organisation have grown rapidly in number during the last 30 years and not only have published books and produced videos but given performances of their work through readings and drama see, for example, reports in Oral History journal in Britain.

A Performative Social Science, certainly if it takes on a explicit remit to include "personal and social change" through the "performative tools" of drama in its various forms, including comedy, musicals, etc.

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It will also require an examination of the "boundaries"—or relation—with theatrical forms and professionals in terms, for instance, of purpose, expertise and collaboration, "evaluation" and involvement, and connection between "subjects" and audiences. But, there must also be recognition of "academic" and organisational constraints—what is deemed "permissible", in terms of research and reporting, by academic bodies, funding agencies, etc.

One potential proving ground for such connectivities, between the social sciences and artistic fields, is through cross-disciplinary efforts within the academia. For instance, social science disciplines by forging more formal relationships with drama departments, art and media schools, etc. Scripted dramas based on field notes, research reports and interviews are one means of "performance ethnography" or "ethnodrama".

However, there is a long history of the use of film and photography in the social sciences, especially in anthropology and ethnography, of the research "field". In the last twenty years there has been the "re-emergence" of "visual anthropology" and also the development of "visual sociology" e. There is also a parallel history, from the birth of film, of the documentary, portraying scenes of everyday life such as street activities, celebrations, work-life and leisure activities. By the s and s there were a number of ethnographic films associated with anthropology.

In terms of "ethnographic photography", examples can be found as early as the s. Anthropologists have used photographs in fieldwork interviews to illicit replies, or as "an aide-de-memoire, similar to written field notes", or published as illustrations or used in lectures and exhibitions—but commonly these were archived with field notes and "usually forgotten'' RUBY, , p. Some of his early work was criticised for "ethnocentricism" due to its concentration on the "bizarre" but there has been some re-evaluation and celebration of his work due to its surrealist influences and intent to "share power" with the audience and his work was followed by others working in a similar vein in the s RUBY, , p.

With the growth of television, anthropology has benefited from educational programmes and collaboration with programme makers, for example in Great Britain, the film company Granada, in producing films and training RUBY, , p. However, according to one view PINK, a, p. Instead, the predominant intent was to found the discipline upon scientific theory and principles, with a practice based on "long-term fieldwork, its relativism and comparative project" PINK, a, p.

During the early s the position of ethnographic film within the discipline began to shift, followed by the founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communication within the American Anthropological Association and also the appearance of the Studies in Visual Communication journal PINK, a, p. Visual anthropologists criticised anthropology for being a "word-driven discipline" which neglected the "visual-pictorial world", "perhaps because of distrust of the ability of images to convey abstract ideas" RUBY, , p. They pointed out that anthropological practice was based on the translation of fieldwork experiences into a textual form in the fieldnotes and then again worked upon through "analytic methods and theories" RUBY, , p.

This "logocentric approach to understanding denies much of the multisensory experience of trying to know another culture". On the contrary, visual anthropology begins with idea that "culture is manifested through visible symbols embedded in gestures, ceremonies, rituals, and artefacts situated in constructed and natural environments" RUBY, , pp. For PINK, the stress on "textualisation" did enable "reflexivity" to emerge already found within visual anthropology but was restrictive in its "rejection of the comparative paradigm" whose theories and methods were "accused of supporting European imperialism and undermined by a critique of its claims to objectivity".

While early visual anthropology began with a positivistic notion that "an objective reality is observable", as it progressed a more "tentative" approach to the "cultural reality" of differing cultures and contexts—as "socially constructed"—and to the positioning of the researcher developed RUBY, , p. Even so, there was a restriction due to the perceived differences between the "aesthetic conventions of filmaking" e.

A definitional question remains regarding "ethnographic film"—there is no commonly accepted definition: Does it merely refer to films produced by anthropologists or are there differences in content, "aesthetics" and purpose when compared with other film genres? A complication is that visual anthropology was not at first part of mainstream anthropology, and has drawn upon other disciplines such as sociology or cultural studies, as well as performance, dance and film RUBY, , p.

PINK a argues that the "crisis of representation" brought by an examination of traditional assumptions regarding the "text" encouraged anthropologists to use "experimental forms" of writing. It also stimulated new means of representing the "sensory embodied and visual aspects of culture", not only ethnographic film and photography see COLLIER, , but also "theatrical" "performance anthropology". Importantly, there are now further opportunities offered by the rise of computers and digital technology in the s and s, with the coming of hypermedia in anthropology PINK, a, p.

As, PINK a, p. For a performative social science, the attention to the "visual" brought by work in anthropology in particular highlights the centrality of the enacted, embodied, communicative-symbolic performative dimensions of lives, alongside the verbal-textual, and the possibilities that new technology can bring.

The boundaries between "ethnographic film" and other film both "factual" and "fictional" are inexact. The distinction between "ethnographic film" itself diverse in form and the varieties of "documentary film" seems particularly blurred. Here there is the important question of any sharing of aesthetics between forms of film. Documentaries have their origin in the silent cinema in Britain, Russia, USA, Germany and elsewhere with "street films", films of "other cultures", "travelogues", filmed events sports, festivals or workplaces, and early natural history films.

Some of these "documentary" or "actuality films" aimed to have a more "poetic" aspect and the coming of sound added a musical dimension e. There were also radical filmmaking and photographic groups during the inter-war period and charity and community workers made short films in "depressed areas" such as South Wales. It perhaps had some influence on the "Kitchen Sink" British "realist" novels, drama and films of the s and early s—for example, the famous play Look Back in Anger , film ; films from novels such as Room at the Top , Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , and others; and early TV series Coronation Street , Z Cars and documentaries.

New writers for theatre, novels, films and TV e.

By the s and s TV also provided an outlet for plays with strong social themes, such as Cathy Come Home , and Edna the Inebriate Woman , A number of internationally known British filmmakers using forms of "realism" in their films have become established in the last thirty years—sometimes engaging "real people" as actors and employing improvisation techniques to address social conditions and issues affecting individual lives e. Various British films, sometimes with a comic appeal, but also with a "realist edge" touching on deeper social themes, have found a very wide international audience e.

Filmmakers, connecting with developments in other arts dance, poetry, music, theatre , can use video "documentary" methods, a variety of voices, collections of sound, multiple images—and follow various narrative paths, rather than having singular narrative direction, with new ways of seeing, experiencing and reflecting DENZIN, , pp. Photography and film, while underused in previous social science—and latterly, video and the Web—are important "performative" media for "social science", which may not merely include filming research contexts or performances based on "research scripts" e. A new and ever-expanding forum for performance is on the Internet.

Text, sound, and images can be presented in endless ways—discussion groups, blog diaries, "communities" of various kinds, music, poetry and dance are all featured. Weblogs have become an enormous part of the Web as individuals write and provide text and "share" their daily lives, from featuring mundane everyday life through to reports back from areas of conflict. It has become an arena for individuals to give fact-fictional accounts. He adds that while this is "acceptable" in traditional fiction, or plays and film, "blogging" raises important issue of "trust" in a context where individuals may get their news from others "substituting for a mass media that is widely mistrusted".

Second Life is particularly interesting because it allows for the construction of "virtual selves" in composed environments. While Flickr does not merely enable the posting of photographs—these can be directly "autobiographical" and coupled with comments from other members. Digital Storytelling has become a focus for a very diverse set of media professionals, community educators, academics and others in recent years with the founding of an International Digital Storytelling network and a number of storytelling centres in universities.

The rise of digital and web technologies, it is argued, allows for the "updating" of the ancient traditions of storytelling by adding new possibilities by the combination of voice and images in new "interactive" ways. New technologies also allow for a distribution—and interaction with—both local and wider audiences across time and space.

Media companies have provided resources, including training, in producing digital stories by the "public"—which are often broadcast on TV or the Web. Diaries, letters, autobiographies, biographies and other material held by museums and other organisations such as archive and research institutions are increasingly being catalogued and made available in digital form and accessible via the Web, providing resources for a performative social science. Access to national census and other materials from Government and other archives is being made easier by the Web and are being used to form biographical, family portraits.

Various popular magazines and "genealogical companies" are also providing access to Web and other materials to trace ancestry. Genealogical materials give the opportunity for research-performance of individual and communal histories—and, thereby, recasting of identities and "roots". TV programmes such as "Who do you think you are? The intent is to explore in a very active way the interaction between individuals and the physical environment e.

An interesting feature of this work is how "practitioners" of "pervasive and locative arts" move across and interrelate "mutli-media and "multi-art"—using a range of technology in drawing across the arts. Research collaboration across the natural and social sciences is taking place using digital, Web and other means on issues such as "memory" in relation to "storing" life experiences, for example, The Memories for Life Network M4L UK and Microsoft's MyLifeBits. Meanwhile, the Digital Camera, 3G phone, MP3 players, Video cameras, personal organisers and so on are providing new opportunities for mini-documentaries.

Photographs and video of everyday events or an event that is "newsworthy" can now be sent to others by various means or uploaded on the Web. Technologically, it is becoming ever easier to record our "performances" as researchers, or as "participants"—with such role lines becoming blurred—as "recording" our lives becomes an everyday occurrence.

Britain seems to be a leader in the use of technology for surveillance and policing, e. British police are testing mobile fingerprinting a device for fingerprinting linked to a national computer and even possibly "camera drones" in the sky.

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Some of the material from CCTV finds it way onto TV in crime reports or as "info-tainment" programmes showing the policing chasing stolen cars, drunken street behaviour, or as pictures of crime victims and perpetrators, so on. Meanwhile, juvenile attackers have been known to record their assaults or other "exploits" by cameraphone and place them on the Web. Again, more mundanely, the "multi-media" of the phone or other devices—with photographs, video—have produced the means of recording and reporting "performance" in our daily activities, including our reactions and emotions.

At some later date, perhaps not too far ahead, there may well be routine or continuous collection, storage and retrieval of daily experience available for immediate or longer term individual review—even by some technological-organic, two-way linkage between "gadget" and brain. At that point, by this "enhanced memory", we will be able to "rewind" our past performances by our personalised video-sensual recorder.

These diverse technological developments provide new and expanded ways of collecting, recording and transmitting informal or formal "performances" whether they are "rehearsed" by individuals for others or caught surreptitiously by official agencies.

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New technologies provide new avenues and ethical and other challenges for a performative social science—emergent kinds of research relationships and practices between researcher, other professionals in the arts, "subjects" and audiences—and a disruption of the time of traditional research "steps" from formulation and collection to analysis and dissemination.

The social sciences from the early s began under the influence of Foucault and others to recognise the importance of the "body" or "embodiment" in relation to the construction of identity, social relations, and power and social control ROBERTS, , pp. The growth of bio-technologies in reproductive processes, genetic medical interventions, DNA mapping and genetic fingerprinting, body modification and replacement, and so on, will have increasingly profound social implications.

The investigations into the origins of widespread diseases and the rise of vaccination, the discovery of antibiotics, and high-tech surgery, have been followed by techniques to grow organs and the mapping of the human genome resulting from the computerisation of bio data. Some of the recent biological interventions were being predicted in detail as far back as the s by popular writers c.

A performative social science must reflect how "biomedical" advances and their implications will impact on how lives and social relations are experienced, perceived and performed—how we regard the use our bodies e. There are several major related issues surrounding the idea of performance, including the definition of "performance", the nature of "representation", and "presentism". Also, there is the possibility of over-applying the idea of performance so that every aspect of social life is included BURKE, , p. As an historian, Burke notes the widespread application of the term in historical studies to a wide range of phenomena e.

He advocates a greater interrogation of the meaning of "performance" and its use, and also discrimination between "stronger" and "weaker" notions of the term. He posits the idea of "occasionalism" with an emphasis on action: BURKE argues that a means of assuaging these problems is to understand "performance" in two ways. First, in its "stronger" sense performance can be used in the study such phenomena as festivals and rituals; in its lesser use, it can be attributed to "the informal scenarios of everyday life". He describes what he sees as a "the rise of occasionalism"; where particular "locales" "encourage or at least facilitate switching between different roles and performances.

Do performed "texts" reflect experienced life? For example, there can be different approaches to the relation between "lived life" and its later "performance" in the arts —the latter, as working from memory in faithfully reflecting past experience, or while recognising that the past is constructed in the present it can still create some "feel" of previous experience, or that the performance bears little relation to its previous "inspiration".

Here, are the fraught questions of "memory" and "experience"—can experience be "relived" or are "performed texts" whether drama, film, etc. There is also the further issue of how the researcher is to "assess" and theorise "performance texts"—to what extent can a performance be reflexive, a critique of past experience and how can it be placed theoretically in its wider context or must it remain at the "level" of experience, resisting theorisation? At the very least, it has to be clear in a performative social science in which sense or senses performance is being used—more specifically, how performative modes of research are being "applied", for example, in relation to understandings of past, present and future experience.

In broad terms, there can be a drift in emphasis in the use of "performance" e. This may be due to an uncertainty regarding retrospection—the uncertain "nature" of the previous experience and, therefore, a reliance on the produced "text". This can be said to be a "drift" from those whose story it is of the social world to those who perform it—unless performance is by the "subjects" themselves or as an "interactive" audience", or experience and performance enjoined.

From the above, there may be a tendency towards "presentism" in a performative approach—it is the performance that has authority and authenticity. Rather than the prior event is it the "sociology of the happening" devoid of its historical or contemporary context? At its simplest the "binary" between the "authority" of the text and "authority" of performance appears to remain. To collapse the separation of prior event from its performance by the formation of materials within an artistic research practice may also have its problems.

At its most radical, the view would be that to understand a part of social life it has to be performed, participated in be ethnographic but thereby performed in the context rather than later represented and analysed in poetry, drama, etc. Rather than the arts being used to represent or as a research practice to gain material, to express experience—the "research" and the "representation" of a situation are united.

This raises a problem regarding the position of analysis and reflexivity—of the distinctiveness of sociological research and practice. If all is performance, including sociological practice then does "research" disappear? The descriptions of performative social science research as "blurring" or "crossing" disciplinary boundaries—drawing on means of collection, presenting and disseminating material from various performative practices has implications for how social scientists will engage in their field.

For example, "Moving into the realm of performance These are not skills that researchers are ordinarily equipped with" and may include little comprehension of what may be involved SPARKES, , p. There are potential dangers in social scientists drawing from the arts—or, at least, from some assumptions and perceptions of the arts. The "artist" or "performer" may appear to be an attractive figure, the arts more creative, intuitive, or representing "reality" in some more "truthful" manner. Here, are the possibilities for projections and idealisations. Just as recently art has looked towards ethnographical practice to meet its problems, so social science in the past in ethnography , and particularly recently, has seen the attraction of the arts.

But is the artist the exemplar here, or is this figure not a projection of an ideal ego of the anthropologist: In other words, might this artist envy be a self-idealization in which the anthropologist is remade as an artistic interpreter of the cultural text? The researcher may seek collaboration, for example, with those in the theatre, which may "not only increase the likelihood of producing an effective drama, but it would also show due respect for others' artistic skills" SPARKES , p.

In this view, moving across disciplinary and practice boundaries entails collaboration with those in other fields for effective research, representation and connection with audiences. Even so, we can argue that the researcher must have some "working knowledge" of other fields—their "ways of doing" and "theorisation of practice". But, can we push this further, and ask how far can researchers be "sited" in this way by being practitioners across disciplinary practices? Of course, there is also the involvement of artists in other artistic forms e.

Interestingly, while there are now many examples of the researcher-as-performer this is often in the context of "auto-ethnography" e. In this Special Issue we are extending beyond ethnography and ethnotheatre to explore possibilities for interconnection across the arts. In practical terms, promising possibilities include, but are not limited to, performance, film, video, audio, graphic arts, new media CD ROM, DVD, and web-based production , poetry and so forth".

It is perhaps worth noting here that there is some initial similarity in his approach regarding "montage" and on the notion of "images" in the more complex Arcades Project and Humphrey JENNINGS's historical survey Pandaemonium. A problem in defining performative social science is the tendency to categorise the various efforts of collaboration and "cross-over" as singular attempts divorced from each other.

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In truth, those working "best" in performative social science are working across several boundaries at once: There is not one category of performative social science, then, but rather, the use of performative tools from varied arenas as suits the purpose. For instance, in making this argument, it is too easy to resort to conceiving performative social science as merely involving some extension of "theatre" rather than as exploring a plethora of approaches "combining" social sciences and the arts.

Performative Social Science, certainly performative ethnography, has an explicit interest in "change" and even in advocacy. If we follow the pedagogic direction of advocacy, activism, and politics—then the question may by asked: Do we need "real" stories at all drawn from research—may not fictionalised experience have an authenticity in still reflecting important "realities" and issues? An underlying problem here, again, is that a broader conception of performative social science is required that goes beyond "performance" to the "performative" or the range of "tools", "methodologies" that can span the boundaries between the social sciences and arts.

Beyond comparisons between social science and theatre or some other artistic practice, there is a broader question of socio-cultural context. How, or to what extent, are experiences or the means of interpreting experience "found" in research intimately shaped in some way by the dominant imperatives of the society? Are contrary accounts limited, rendered inauthentic or neutralised? Indeed, how is our reflexivity as both researcher and narrator possible given the pervasiveness of dominant discourses? But, there is a problem here that needs to be addressed. If radical perspectives are taken to inform types of performative work then there are deep and "traditional" questions for the performative researcher—and a debate that dates back in sociology to at least GOULDNER and BECKER's discussion of "Whose side are we on?

Here, are awkward concerns for the researcher in how to treat the experiences and societal understandings given by others—in simple terms, on the one hand to remain "faithful" to individuals' accounts and restricting theorisation, or on the other, provide some broader theorisation, "critique" and encourage individuals' reflection? The "performative turn" is yet another "moment"—in addition to the to "cultural", "linguistic", "visual", "embodiment" and other "turns" that have occurred in the last twenty-five or more years.

However, there may be something deeper, beneath all of these "turns" which is taking place. Perhaps, what is emerging at a societal level is shifts in the way we "communicate". She argues that individuals and groups as linked in a "variety of modes", with communication being "dynamic and emergent" exhibiting "mutuality" and "interconnectedness".

From this, we can argue, that a performative social science must recognise a number of important, changing dimensions in individual lives and social interaction in research: The "performative turn", if it can be readily identified, is two simultaneous movements: They say that "social inquiry and its methods are productive" not merely describing our surroundings, these "make" our social realities, and enact our social world. In this view the social sciences have to engage in a "re-imagination" of its practices and methods, especially as our social relations seem to be more complicated, more difficult to grasp and less predictable:.

Social inquiry can, therefore, be seen as broadly "performative"—as "enacting", "productive", "sensory", and "mutli-relational". Writers in performance studies have noted the rise of "multiple literacies" and "hypertexts" and the need for researchers to have some skills in new technologies SCHECHNER, , p. It is also becoming clear that digital technologies are having a "transformative effect" in biographical or narrative studies and in the broader social sciences.

GIVEN argues that these technologies will further encourage methodological and theoretical developments and the interdisciplinarity of biographical-narrative studies. Problems of various kinds will be encountered, not least of all the "data deluge" of materials that are becoming available. GIVEN adds other dimensions: First, the traditional reliance on the text—the conversion of the recorded interview to the written word has become "strained at the limits" with researchers trying to reproduce the "performed" speech by highlighting, font types, and various editing conventions.

Audio-visual recording provides for new creative, representational opportunities—"the nature of the "text" and the question of appropriate analytic procedures are radically changed". GIVEN points to the "embedded narratives" that researchers could attend to in photographs of people and places. Again, new challenges arise, here, interrelating text and image, illustration and analysis, and in terms of methodological criteria and theoretical application.

Secondly, he argues that the existence of "large scale linked audio visual data bases" containing narrative materials gives a further challenge to the conventional distinction between qualitative and quantitative social science research, by new ways of combining data, e. Questions remain such as the "digital divide" between groups, but as GIVEN argues, the access and usage of new media such mobile phones, digital camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players, personal organisers, and so on is now very wide. Also, the opportunities to edit and share digital materials are increasing rapidly.

New possibilities are arriving as the means of digital storage become greater with attendant ethical questions regarding recording and access to personal materials video, photographs, email, phone calls, and text materials in digital archives GIVEN, Virtual life stories and ethnographies are intricately "performative"—in their initial production, interconnections and interactivity with the "audience":. The rise of digital technologies are providing new outlets for communication.

However, it is important to place these—and the older use of text and visuals—within a broader conception of how we "communicate" or "perform" in social contexts. For example, the degree that communication has to be conscious and verbal; the type of connection between actors e. FINNEGAN acknowledges that her definition does not have the specificity of some definitions, but "communicating" is not a simple phenomenon but varies, for example, in purpose, organisation and consciousness, according to time and spatial difference and degree of "shared conventions" FINNEGAN, , p.

In addition, she says that people also deploy a number of "modes" to communicate to each other both face-to-face and separated by distance not only through language but other "media" such as "clothing, books, calligraphic systems, sculptures, textiles, paintings Through the ways we communicate—by the various modalities—societal assumptions, expectations and ideas are made and remade e. Ideologies, for instance, can be considered to be "socially choreographed" or performed in more formal situations, as in dance e.

The emerging digital technologies, we can say, are therefore another addition or layer of communicative possibilities, while the current focus on "performance" opens up further considerations—the range and shifting nature of performance or how we communicate through a variety of channels and across many forms of representation, as well as how to employ performative methods.

Communication involves the "senses" or feelings that we experience and exchange. HOWES has argued e. In social research, such a focus is vital and a necessary replacement of the prominence given to the analysis or "reading" of the "text" or discourse within cultural research following the "linguistic turn" in which culture itself was seen as a "text".

Within anthropology attention to the "senses" in research has a long history c. Margaret MEAD in the s. The developments in the s were somewhat stalled in the s with the rise of the "text" model for cultural analysis but the s saw the "senses" emerge as an important field see HOWES, In his view, in premodernity the senses were regarded as a "set" with each one associated with an element e.

But, with the Enlightenment, he says, vision as associated with reason became dominant as society's "progressive rationalization" was connected to the growing "visualization of society and space". HOWES argues, that sensory meanings are connected to values through which individuals "make sense" of their surroundings or "translate sensory perceptions and concepts into a particular 'world view''' HOWES, , para.

Again, the s and s there was the notion of culture "structured" like a "text" or "language" due to influences of linguistics , while in the s a "pictorial turn" gave attention to the visual aspects of culture and communication. In the s the "corporeal turn" drew attention to the body or "embodiment" and the "material turn" gave a focus on "material culture" HOWES, We can say that these "turns" are often associated and it can be asked what is actually meant by a "turn" or "moment" c. Perhaps, a more multi-modal approach to performance is required, rather than moving a focus from one area to another.

That is, the sensorial revolution in the human sciences encompasses and builds on the insights of each of these approaches, but also seeks to correct their excesses—by offsetting the verbocentrism of the linguistic turn; the visualism of the pictorial turn, the materialism of the material turn The identification of these various "turns" shows the need for a more comprehensive theoretical and methodological approach—as indicated by the notions of "performative", "communicative" or "sensual".

Software developments that allow the tagging of such performative aspects of narrative interviews, and their linkage to transcript based data, already exist and can be expected to undergo further rapid development". The challenge for research is to be able to convey the range of "senses". As various writers have pointed out, film and video have limitations since their advantages lie in the audio-visual; textual materials cannot relate the "senses" directly although they can describe the variety of sensual experience.

A "new" "performative" or "sensorial" or "communicating" methodology will require an approach which can examine through audio, visual, text, narration, etc. Perhaps also, as PINK a, p. The series of "turns" in theoretical conceptualisation and research practice are attempting to capture deep socio-historical shifts in society. An important way of considering the social developments above, for a performative social science, is to place them in a deeper socio-historical context. The numerous "turns" in social science can be seen as a series of shifts in focus as commentators become aware of further social changes, often in aspects of social life that have been relatively neglected in study, or in new kinds of social connection.

The use of the term "performative" reflects the interrelated communicative, sensual, digital and biomedical changes which are taking place at a fast rate. Today, he argues, performative objects are "unstable rather than fixed"—with complex identities, with the intrusion of biological and "virtual" technologies and as shifting within multiplicities of discourses and practice sites, within many "socio-technical systems". Meanwhile, multimedia and the hypertextual processes are challenging the linearality of research processes.

In short, are we not witnessing the old game of divide and rule? Thus, we should beware in accepting or forming any new categorisation of practices, since taken to the extreme categorisation can be a colonising process that distributes and distinguishes, rewards and impoverishes, empowers and subordinates.

The notion of "performance", alongside "communicating" and the "sensual" are amongst the more "inclusive" descriptions of "turns" or "revolutions" in the social sciences—each attempts, in a particular way, to understand the significant social changes which are affecting how we relate to each other. In summary, two practical questions arise for researchers intending qualitative study through performative social science:.

What would a performative research "practice" in general or in a particular case, informed by the "enacted", "communicating", "sensual" etc. What kind of researcher is a "performative social science" researcher? One who is sensitive to "aesthetics", "critique", "reflexivity", is an "activist"? Who can "collaborate" with artists or other professionals and gain at least some knowledge of and explore "performative methods" derived from artistic fields?

One immediate reply to these questions is that there is a difference between a general research "manifesto" as advocating new kinds of qualitative research and particular pieces of research by a researcher—who could choose to take up particular "new" collaborations, skills, and approaches according to abilities, "appropriateness", possibilities for working with others, or other criteria. However, we can all explore new skills and hidden abilities, but should not according to some passing whim or fashion; both old and new ways of "performing—doing" and "telling about society" BECKER, —will provide insights into how we enact, communicate, sense, and affect social life.

Time and social theory. Social performance between ritual and strategy. Sociological Theory , 22 4 , The interview society and the invention of the self. Qualitative Inquiry , 3 3 , The genius of photography. Visual methods in social research. Sexuality, colonialism and social dissent. Nonfiction, film and television. Whose side are we on? Social Problems , 14 Winter , Becker, Doing things together: Visual sociology, documentary photography, and photojournalism, It's nearly almost all a mater of context.

The University of Chicago Press. What is performance studies? In Henry Bial Ed. Theatre of the oppressed. An introduction to the arts and narrative research: Qualitative Inquiry , 9 4 , From the Bauhaus to the New World. A grammar of motives. The importance of occasions. Rethinking History , 9 1 , The printed face of the European avant garde A Mass-Observation anthology, Walter Benjamin and the arcades. Papers of Surrealism , 1 , Winter, Exploring the senses in history and across cultures.

In James Clifford, The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art pp. The poetics and politics of ethnography. University of California Press. Photography as a research method. University of New Mexico. Poetics, play, process, and power: The performative turn in anthropology.

Text and Performance Quarterly , 1 , Interventions and radical research. The art of record. Interpretive interactionism 2nd edit. For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs , and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice.

Publications Pages Publications Pages. Search within my subject: Politics Urban Studies U. History Law Linguistics Literature. Music Neuroscience Philosophy Physical Sciences. The Translation of Drama. The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies. Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. Sign in with your library card. In This Article Abstract and Keywords The translation of drama has been an important sub-field in the work of literary translators.