Performance as public work : youth as civic actors for policy and practice in Liberia / Jasmine L. Blanks Jones.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Blanks Jones, Jasmine L., author.

Contributor:

Ben-Porath, Sigal, degree supervisor.

Jackson, John L., Jr., 1944 July-, degree supervisor.

University of Pennsylvania. Department of Africana Studies, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education.

Performing arts.

Public health education.

African studies.

Africana Studies--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Africana Studies.

Local Subjects:

Education.

Performing arts.

Public health education.

African studies.

Africana Studies--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Africana Studies.

Genre:

Academic theses.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 82-11B.

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania ; Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2021.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Research on the civic engagement and citizenship education of youth in Africa rarely considers their cultural production. Based on one year of ethnographic data collection (September 2018-August 2019) at a youth theater company in Liberia, of which I am the Founder and Executive Director, this performance ethnography examines the process of creating popular theatre as it draws from the lived experiences of participants while it aims to change the very systems and structures that shape their opportunities and capabilities. In analyzing the interactions between youth and their peers, their communities and members of the international community, this study offers a theory of change for how young people in Liberia transition from perceived beneficiaries to civic actors. I conceive of citizenship broadly, seeking to understand how young people in Liberia engage with and utilize artistic performance-based practices as a form of emergent participatory citizenship which shapes their political socialization.Young people in Liberia strategically navigate differential power between themselves and international development personnel as evidence of embodied cosmopolitanism that encompasses the skills, knowledge and attitudes often reserved for characterizing the global citizenship practices of primarily white youth from the global North. Through interactions with international persons within NGOs that fund their theatre projects, they integrate global matters of concern into their projects, thus reframing them as local problems and reorienting themselves as civic actors in everyday performances of global citizenship. On the interpersonal level, theatre arts contribute to the development of crucial bonds between actors, which may lay the foundation for shifting from identity-based to membership-based civic status. I find that these transformative moments leave the stage and permeate their everyday lives reshaping the social relations that perpetuate gender-based, educational, and health inequities. My research demonstrates how these strategic navigations and crucial bonds are illuminated in everyday performances that build upon the concept of embodied cosmopolitanism as a form of global citizenship education. I argue that this iterative process of engagement and training in popular theatre gives youth the tools they need to strategically craft everyday performances of citizenship.

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 82-11, Section: B.

Advisors: Ben-Porath, Sigal; Jackson, John L., Jr.; Committee members: Krystal Strong; Yolanda Covington-Ward.

Department: Africana Studies.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2021.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798738618093

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.

This item is not available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.