Driving Social Change Through Forum Theatre: A Study of Jana Sanskriti in West Bengal, India

dc.contributor.author Brahma, Jharna
dc.contributor.author Pavarala, Vinod
dc.contributor.author Belavadi, Vasuki
dc.date.accessioned 2022-03-27T01:47:12Z
dc.date.available 2022-03-27T01:47:12Z
dc.date.issued 2019-12-01
dc.description.abstract This article examines Forum Theatre as a form of participatory communication for social change. Based on an ethnographic study of Jana Sanskriti (JS), a Forum Theatre group working for over three decades in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, this article seeks to show how this form of theatre, developed by the Brazilian activist Augusto Boal, subverts the passivity inherent in the communicator–receiver model of the dominant paradigm by activating the critical consciousness of the spectator and triggering a process of social change through dialogue and discussion. JS has been using Forum Theatre to address some of the deeply entrenched social norms in rural West Bengal, including those related to patriarchy, child marriage, domestic violence, and maternal and child health related issues, by extending Boal’s notion of the ‘spect-actor’ to encourage the spectators to become ‘spect-activists’, who then are engaged in community-level work on social change. We suggest that this form of communication is clearly bottom-up, radically participatory, community-based and led by the oppressed, as has been advocated by several scholars working on communication for social change.
dc.identifier.citation Asia Pacific Media Educator. v.29(2)
dc.identifier.issn 1326365X
dc.identifier.uri 10.1177/1326365X19864477
dc.identifier.uri http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1326365X19864477
dc.identifier.uri https://dspace.uohyd.ac.in/handle/1/4126
dc.subject Communication for social change
dc.subject forum theatre
dc.subject participatory communication
dc.subject social norms
dc.subject theatre of the oppressed
dc.title Driving Social Change Through Forum Theatre: A Study of Jana Sanskriti in West Bengal, India
dc.type Journal. Article
dspace.entity.type
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