TRANSLATION BETWEEN ACADEMIC RESEARCH, COMMUNITY AND PRACTICE: A FORUM THEATRE PROCESS

Abstract

On 6 February 2008, a deliberative theatre experiment was held at the National Archives of Quebec. Inspired by the democratic virtues of public deliberation but preoccupied with its blind spots, Forum Theatre was used to initiate discussion about the social tensions between the homeless and other dwellers of public space in downtown Montreal. Using Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, we hoped to emphasize the narratives of the homeless in these neighbourhood forums to engage a variety of stakeholders in a reflexive debate on normative conceptions of public space which tend to reproduce the marginalization of the homeless by reinforcing the denial of recognition they face. Drawing from Michel Callon’s Sociology of Translation (1986) as an analytical model, we argue that our research process was riddled with blind spots as it did not explicitly identify and negotiate its ‘obligatory passage points’. This undermined its co-constructive aims as well as its deconstructive outcomes.