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Theatre and Citizenship: Young People’s Participatory Spaces

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Politics, Citizenship and Rights

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 7))

Abstract

This chapter considers the ways young people’s citizenship can be performatively conceptualized and methodologically operationalized using theatre techniques. It highlights how geographers’ theorizations of young people’s political agency are in tandem with current theatre research that champions alternative spaces of citizenship expression. Young people’s citizenships can be allegorically scripted and the ways in which they respond expresses the contradictions of a discourse of citizenship through statecraft. Despite the wealth of successful examples, there are important considerations when employing theatre methods under the participatory action research framework. In addition, the debates and issues within theatre itself should also prompt social science researchers who are contemplating to employ such methods to not reduce theatrical techniques to a set of tools. Hence, the chapter concludes by discussing the ways in which theatre can be an alternative space for young people to circumvent stifling political geographies and express ideas and opinions about being a Singaporean and its potential benefits in future geographical research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Claudia Wong

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  1. Claudia Wong
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Correspondence to Claudia Wong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG), Centre of Excellence in Research on the Relational and Territorial Politics of Bordering, Identities and Transnationalization (RELATE), University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Kirsi Pauliina Kallio

  2. Department of Geography, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

    Sarah Mills

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Wong, C. (2016). Theatre and Citizenship: Young People’s Participatory Spaces. In: Kallio, K., Mills, S., Skelton, T. (eds) Politics, Citizenship and Rights. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 7. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-57-6_25

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