scholarly journals Rediscovering the Latin American Roots of Participatory Communication for Social Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Barranquero
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Participatory Communication ◽  
Communication For Social Change

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-177
Author(s):  
Jharna Brahma ◽  
Vinod Pavarala ◽  
Vasuki Belavadi
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Augusto Boal ◽  
Participatory Communication ◽  
Forum Theatre ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Communication For Social Change ◽  
The Spectator

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.

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