The goal of this project is to develop a caring, playful, and evidence-based intervention as an in-between space to support diverse populations to resist divide-and-rule politics in their own way. The intervention is also a co-creative research method that explores how people are aware of, feel, interpret, imagine and feel able to resist divide-and-rule politics.
The target group for this stage of the project is (university, HBO and MBO) students, and we aim to repeat this intervention for other groups.
Background
All around us, we see people categorising each other between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and the marginalisation, discrimination and polarisation that comes with that. The problem of polarisation is not the existence of differences between people. It is a political project of pushing people into binary categories, between self and other, often as part of a form of ‘divide-and-rule’ politics.
Even though many people want to see a world where there is an equal place for everyone, many people find it too hard to imagine or work towards other ways of being and knowing.
Quest is an invitation and an exploration into imagining and doing futures beyond us-vs-them politics. We invite participants to become co-researchers and collectively explore with us how we can navigate us-and-them thinking and the instrumentalising of difference. Using the arts as a gateway to imagination and to old and new ways of being and knowing, we attempt to create an in-between space, a bubble in which we collectively feel, see, apply, resist, and imagine to overcome polarisation in our own lives and beyond.
Research questions
- Awareness and acknowledgement
What is the participants’ awareness of the workings of divide-and-rule politics? - Feeling
How do participants feel about us-and-them thinking, and when can feelings of discomfort become a creative force rather than a source of harm? - Interpretation
How do participants interpret the role of us-and-them thinking and divide-and-rule politics in their lives? - Imagination
How do participants imagine alternative (in-between or non-dualist) ways of being and knowing than us-and-them thinking? - Agency
What is participants’ feeling of agency to change the negative effects of them-and-us thinking? - The in-between space as a strategy for change
To what extent does the intervention create an in-between space for becoming aware, feeling, interpreting, imagining, and exercising agency in resisting divide-and-rule politics?
Research design
The study will take place in Nijmegen and Belfast. In both places, the research design comprises an internal and an external intervention.
Internal intervention
A focused retreat with about 15-20 participants that includes six 2-hour workshops, condensed in one weekend, with food and rest provided in between. The basis of the workshops is co-creative, playful, embodied exercises grounded in improv theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, movement, creative writing and sharing. The focus is on creativity and fun while upholding high ethical standards for a co-creative research space.
External co-created intervention
Based on the input during the retreat, the core team will devise a performative (guerilla) intervention for a wider audience in the public space. Participants in the retreat are expected to contribute to and are welcome to co-facilitate/ co-produce the guerrilla performance.
Evaluation
Both the internal and the external intervention are evaluated for (1) their impact on participants, and (2) their use as a co-creative methodology. Using Quantitative and Qualitative methods, participants are questioned before, during and after the interventions. Team Co-creative qualitative design/research Tine Davids Marieke van Houte Research assistant Creative design/performance Katrina Newall Paula McFetheridge Quantitative research Niels Spierings Nella Geurts Research assistant
People who want to participate in this project can sign up with this form.