What is the problem of inequality, and can we solve it?

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to consider how, if at all, participatory theatre serves the Sustainable Development Goal number 10: Reducing Inequality (SDG10). The paper draws on policy analysis methodology What’s the Problem Represented to be? (Bacchi 2009) to critically consider how inequity as a solvable social and/or economic problem is represented by SDG10. I then draw on two previous research projects, one conducted by myself and colleagues (2018) and one conducted by Masso-Guijarro and colleagues (2021) that explicitly explore how scholarship in participatory theatre orient to social change agenda to understand how participatory theatre represents the problem of inequality and how, if at all, this relates to SDG10. Finally, I recruit key participatory theatre projects from Denmark, Canada, Chile and New Zealand to consider practical ways of understanding how participatory theatre may contribute to combating inequality through its attention to the lived experiences of inequality, the potential for making changes to individual lives, and its orientation to hope. In doing this, I hope to contribute new perspectives on drama and equity that present a nuanced and critical consideration the relationship between public discourses, policy and practice.