Journal Articles

New action research techniques: Using Participatory Theatre with health care workers

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The use of various creative art forms in the research process is reflective of the turn towards interpretative practices that make visible certain aspects of the social world. Theatre, especially, has the capacity to convey meanings that pertain to the flux of social relationships. Reported in this paper is a particular use of theatre that is located in a history and tradition of liberatory social action. In Participatory Theatre, performative enactments are used to investigate the social arrangements that impede progressive change. Participatory Theatre opens up productive spaces for reflexivity and creates knowledge that is grounded in immediate experience and direct experiment. It is accomplished through an iterative process that involves action, reflection and action. In this article the use of Participatory Theatre in an action research project is described for the purposes of establishing its legitimacy as a viable action research technique. The project was motivated and sustained by the needs of a group of health care workers in a western Canadian province to address the problem of workplace bullying. The project confirms that envisioning alternative solutions to the problem of workplace bullying need not be derived in schools of management science; these can come from those on the ‘shop-floor’.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Action Research

Call Number

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Publisher

: sage publisher., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

14767503

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 8 no. 2. June 2010. pp. 117-133

Subject(s)

participatory research
Health care workers
Arts-based methodologies

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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