Towards a concept of inefficiency in performance and dialogue practice

ABSTRACT

In this article, I offer a model of practice called Operations of Dialogue. Operations of Dialogue (OoD) is a performative structure for a public event. Enacted dialogues relating to an ethical or political theme or issue form part of a public performance that concludes in an open debate. I argue that OoD positions its participants in a critical relation to neoliberal subjectivity, with the potential to usefully inform our modes of teaching and learning. In doing so, I draw upon Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action to offer an account of inefficiency in performance and dialogic practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Habermas
• neoliberalism
• dialogue
• workshop practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr. Linda Taylor is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University where she is the Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Drama. In her research and teaching she is committed to the exploration and investigation of performance making processes which challenge dominant discourses and emphasise participants as co-producers of knowledge.

Notes

1 Publicity material for the event was created by Lyn Cunningham

2 I develop the notion of ideology critique in more detail below.

3 It has been outside the scope of this paper to situate this practice in relation to Jacques Rancière’s concept of the “emancipated spectator.” It should be noted that there is clearly much in the practice of OoD that resonates with the democratic impulse towards an equality of “ownership” of ideas and interpretations within the space that Rancière speaks of, as well as the dissolving of boundaries between actor and spectator. (Rancière 2014). However, Habermas, I argue, gives us an important set of conceptual tools for thinking about how to create the space in which an equality on the basis of rationality might be achieved.

4 See Fraser (1985, 1990); and Benhabib (1995).

5 Fish bowl technique involves the placing of four chairs in a small inner circle within the playing space, while chairs for all other participants are placed outside of this circle. Four people elect to start by sitting in one of the chairs in the inner circle. They can begin talking about any of the ideas raised in the work so far. They can leave at any point and resume their original seat in the outer circle, at which point someone else from the outer circle may take their place. Members of the outer circle can also request to join the circle by simply touching a speaker on the shoulder, at which point that speaker must leave the inner circle.