Staging Democracy

Staging Democracy responds to compelling calls in democratic theory for communication and coalition across social difference by asking how we realize these ideals in concrete terms. It shifts the focus from if and why marginalized difference should find entry into politics, to the practical question of how this is to be done. What explains those rare moments when marginalized voices break through in contemporary politics? And how might a closer look at the strategies and resources at play within such moments enhance how we understand and enact civic engagement?

Political theory and practice have traditionally overlooked the performing arts as a site of civic politics, and yet marginalized communities continually turn to them to communicate, challenge, and catalyze change. This book brings vivid moments of creative practice from three continents together with performance studies and political scholarship to argue that artistic performance offers a potent form of democratic voice for claims from the margins. Across political contexts, democratic aims, and artistic genres, Staging Democracy shows how the very qualities that lead some to think of the arts as unclear, irrational, and irresponsible - and thus politically suspect - shape artistic performance's distinct capacity to enact democratic engagement in conditions of deep difference and inequality.

Emily Beausoleil is a Senior Lecturer of Politics at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington and Editor-in-Chief of Democratic Theory journal. As a political theorist, she explores the conditions, challenges, and creative possibilities for democratic engagement in diverse and unequal societies. Connecting affect, critical democratic, postcolonial, neuroscience, and performance scholarship, Beausoleil's work explores how we might realize democratic ideals of voice and listening across difference in concrete terms. Her work has been published in Political Theory, Contemporary Political Theory, Theory & Event, New Political Science, and Constellations, as well as in various books.