Culture as Deconstruction and Participation? Reflections from a field…in Transition

This chapter explores how different artistic activities can promote cultural and social change in terms of both 1) narratives built around migration and diversity and 2) practices of resistance and social inclusion facilitating intercultural dialogue. Our reflection focuses on a double level of analysis. From the methodological point of view, it investigates how, in the project “Atlas of Transitions”, the approach of action research sustains the conditions under which groups of people can organise and learn from their own experience, showing a major shift in both the reflection on knowledge production within and outside the academy and in the relations between research, action and social change. Secondly, our analysis focuses on the processes of audience development which encourage the audience of artistic practices to intervene directly in the performances. In this way, both action research and audience development can intervene in supporting a critical reflection by the participants, nurturing change and awareness about migration and linking the artistic, civic and political spheres.