Dramaturgies of change: Staging political transformation

Abstract

Against the backdrop of escalating climate change and widespread political dissatisfaction, calls are increasing for radical transformation of socioeconomic and political structures. But how such transformations could materialise remains an open question. In this article, we argue for alternative ways of understanding political stasis and change. Drawing on the established tradition of interpreting politics as theatre, we argue that dramaturgical analysis helps to spot problematic conventions and introduce productive alternatives. We introduce the notion of ‘dramaturgies of change’ to identify the dramaturgical interventions able to destabilise and reconfigure existing political regimes. We further offer the notion of the ‘dominant symbolic order’, a realm of stylistically stable but substantively flexible signifiers such as the crucifix and freedom, that actors must gain interpretive control of to lend legitimacy to their interventions. Using this framework to illuminate three examples – Nazism, the Civil Rights Movement, and Occupy – we argue that radical political change gains strength from symbolic conservatism.