The Art of Collectivity

Social Circus and the Cultural Politics of a Post-Neoliberal Vision

Edited by Jennifer Beth Spiegel & Benjamin Ortiz Choukroun
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Hardcover : 9780773557345, 320 pages, September 2019
Paperback : 9780773557352, 320 pages, September 2019
Ebook (PDF) : 9780773558366, September 2019
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780773558373, September 2019

What tensions and what potential emerge when a community art program seeks to promote collectivity in the present era?

Description

Amidst epidemics of youth alienation and cultural polarization, community-based artistic practices are sprouting up around the world as antidotes to policies of austerity and social exclusion. Rejecting the radical individualism of the neoliberal era, many artistic projects promote collectivity and togetherness in navigating challenges and constructing shared futures. The Art of Collectivity is about how one such creative social program deployed this approach in service of a post-neoliberal vision. Focusing on a national social circus initiative launched by a newly elected Ecuadorean government to help actualize its “citizens' revolution,” the book explores the intersection between global cultural politics, participatory arts, collective health, and social transformation. The authors include scholars and practitioners of community arts, humanities, social sciences, and health sciences from the Global North and Global South. Sensitive to hierarchical binaries such as research/practice, north/south, and art/science, they work together to provide a multifaceted analysis of the way cultural politics shape policy, pedagogy, and aesthetic sensibilities, as well as their socio-cultural and health-related effects. The largest study of social circus to date, combining detailed quantitative, qualitative, and arts-based research, The Art of Collectivity is a timely contribution to the study of cultural policies, critical pedagogies, collective art-making, and community development.

Reviews

"The Art of Collectivity is a solid, interesting, and enjoyable read that covers a gap in the fields of cultural policies and social studies of arts." Julieta Infantino, University of Buenos Aires

"A book such as this is long overdue. Introducing new methodologies and original research, The Art of Collectivity is an impressive, unique, and groundbreaking work on a fascinating subject." Katie Lavers, Edith Cowan University