Theatricality and Collective Action. Processes of Collective Representation

In this session, I will explore the link between theatricality and collective action in contexts of modern Western society. The analysis requires an interdisciplinary approach, interweaving the practices and studies of performing arts with those of social movements, which have provided some of the most relevant analyses of collective action. For theatre, I will refer to a tradition that distances itself from the bourgeois conception, characterised by masks and wax, returning to an authentic status, where there is no delegation and dependence between author, producer, director, actor and spectator. For social movements, I refer to the processual analysis of collective action, not as a static phenomenon, but as the result of sequences of mechanisms and strategic interactions between social actors and context. Combining these disciplines means studying theatre as a collective process in the making, which I define as the process of collective representation. This process, alongside typical mechanisms of collective action, involves three fundamental events/mechanisms: re-interpretation, ludic moment and performance. It can take at least two forms: a routine one, linked to bourgeois theatre conventions, and an authentic one, freed from masks, arising from unexpressed social needs and desires. Analysing art as a process of collective representation offers a significant interdisciplinary perspective. In art studies, it allows us to understand art not as a static work confined to museums or theatres, but as a dynamic and collective process intertwined with other social processes, where performance is just one mechanism. In collective action studies, it allows to distinguish between routine collective representations and authentic, contingent and unmasked creative forms. This approach promotes the legitimisation of forms of expression not recognised by traditional critics and, in studies of collective action, re-evaluates marginalised actors as bearers of political agency, often perceived as hostile, resigned or invisible within institutional or radical political discourse.