Unconventional Carers
Children caring in and through performance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21687254 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Suzanne Little (0000-0003-3281-3471, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 6-7 |
| Pages | 103-110 |
| Publication date | 2022-10-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Performance Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1352-8165 • E-ISSN: 1469-9990 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13528165.2022.2198305 |
| OpenAlex | W4385508026 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
In 1993 Joan Tronto identified the devaluing and uneven distribution of care within society. Tronto observed that “care-giving” is mostly done by ‘women and men of colour’ and white working class women, while ‘caring about’ and ‘taking care of’ roles are the province of the powerful (Tronto 1993: 114). Some progress has been made in recognising the value of care-givers, and more groups are now in ‘taking care of’ roles. However, consideration needs also to be given to those traditionally excluded from care roles. I am interested in what occurs when individuals who are seen as requiring care, such as children, take on the role of carers within or through performance. I argue such reorientations can produce positive reassessments and effects, including new perspectives, new respect, and agency for those habitually seen as vulnerable. In this article, I examine why children have often been seen as incapable of care. I then explore the effects and impact of children taking on care roles in and through a theatre performance. I use as an example Lara Thoms’ and Tamara Hersch’s award-winning experimental production We All Know What’s Happening (2017-19), which details the colonisation history of Nauru and its use as a detention centre for asylum seekers. The production was performed and co-devised by a group of Australian children who corresponded with child asylum seekers in Nauru. It involves children caring and speaking for children. The production puts forth a mode of caring which deconstructs binaries, offers new ways of seeing, and a critique, in this case, of the perceived carelessness of Australian adults towards asylum seekers in Nauru. In an age of child activists, it is time for a reassessment of perceptions of dependence and vulnerability and who can be carers
Happening · Performance art · Social science · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
Performance, Resistance and Refugees
Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly
Entertaining Children
Victim, litigant, activist, messiah
Caring in mind? Professionals’ awareness of young carers and young adult carers in Switzerland
The Will to Care
Memetic protest and the dramatic diffusion of Alan Kurdi
The politics of care
Negotiating vulnerability through "animal" and "child
| Highly cited | No |
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