Dramatising Citizen Engagement

WP7 combines approaches from sociology, political science, theatre studies, religious studies, and anthropology to provide a "total" analysis of citizen engagement events.  It also proceeds in a transdisciplinary fashion, involving collaborations between academics, policymakers, artists, activists, and direct actors, drawing on alternative understandings of knowledge and action to provide a tangible policy intervention. We experiment with an alternative format of engagement that provides clear lessons for policymakers. In assessing how a balance is struck between policymakers' desire to influence public action and citizens' demand for control, we take a dramaturgical lens (Hajer 2005) that emphasizes the importance of complementing rational discourse with affective discourses and forms that attend to and channel the emotions in the room. Understanding panels as ritual processes in which the aim of finding common ground is intimately intertwined with the cultivation of common identity and responsibility (Stacey 2022), we will integrate observations regarding people's emotional response to climate change and inequality with a dramaturgical analysis of how these emotions were elicited and attended to. With an already well-established network of academics, policymakers, artists, activists, and direct actors focused on sustainability transitions, we will collectively try to design an alternative approach to citizen panels.

Find out more about the team working on WP7.

Hajer, Maarten A. 2005. "Setting the Stage: A Dramaturgy of Policy Deliberation." Administration & Society 36 (6):624-647. doi: 10.1177/0095399704270586.

Stacey, Timothy. 2022. Saving Liberalism from Itself: The Spirit of Political Participation: Policy Press.