Accountability: the ethics of devising a practice-as-research performance with learning-disabled practitioners

Abstract

This article discusses the dilemmas encountered by non-disabled performance researchers and practitioners working with learning-disabled people. I demonstrate how the ‘accounts’ of empirical social scientists informed my PARIP [practice-as-research-in-performance] project, BluYesBlu, and how Judith Butler's reformulation of the concept of ethics, from the responsibility of the individual to negotiations within social relations, has revealed the complexity of the tensions between ‘othering’ and ‘normalising’ tendencies within this practice.

Keywords:

• learning difficulties
• performance
• ethics
• identity formation

Notes

1. See http://www.makaton.org/about/about.htm.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fran Leighton

Fran Leighton is a senior lecturer in drama and performance at the University of Worcester. Her research interests include theories of identity and performance, with specific reference to dis/ability, gender and sexuality, and physical theatre