Table of Contents

Dedication
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements I
Acknowledgements II
Prologue

Part I:
Listening, Pedagogy, Theatre, and Cultural Citizenship
Listening as an Artful Practice of Care
Listening and Caring as Political Acts
Creating Social Value from Theatre
The System: Worlds Apart but Structurally Familiar

The Settings: Brief Social, Political and Educational Portraits of Athens, Lucknow, Coventry, Tainan, Toronto
Athens, Greece: Setting the Context
Lucknow, India: Setting the Context
Coventry, England: Setting the Context
Tainan, Taiwan: Setting the Context
Toronto, Canada: Setting the Context

Ethnography and its Ecologies
An Overview of Data Collection
A Word about Ethnography

The Qualitative Landscape: Care and Cultural Citizenship
Daring to Dream in Greek Austerity
Misfit Citizenship and Political Personhood in India: A Methodology of Critical Dialogue and Rehearsed Futurity

Hope, Performance Pedagogies, and Democratic Citizenship
Canley Youth Theatre’s Missive to the World—Listen
A Pedagogy of Hope
Tainan Students Making the World they Need
The Self, the Collective: Theatre and Social Change

Interdependency Against All Odds
Voicing Toronto Stories for a more Equal World
The Territory of Race, Racism, and Gender in Verbatim Theatre Creation
Visible and Invisible Vulnerabilities in Oral History Storytelling
Muckles’ Story of Hearing and Being Heard
Youth Alienation from Mainstream Politics: Who is the Knowledgeable Citizen?
Devising Theatre, Identity and the Search for Structure and Meaning

Hope and Care in the Quantitative Landscape
Key Quantitative Findings Across Sites
‘Outside the Mainstream’ and the Nature of Personal Hope and Experiences of Care
Generating Hope through Self-Creation in the School, the Community, and in the Drama-Making Space
Young People as Care-Givers
Finding and Giving Care in Context
To Conclude: Wrestling Towards Hope through Relationships of Care

Epilogue: Acting in Concert

Turning Towards Part II:
Towards Youth Audience Research

Part II:
A Step Towards Youth
By Andrew Kushnir

Towards Youth: A Play on Radical Hope
By Andrew Kushnir

Appendix
References
Index

About the Author

Kathleen Gallagher is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Distinguished Professor in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Director of the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto.
Andrew Kushnir is an independent artist and artistic director of Project: Humanity

Reviews

"In a time of so much despair, this book is a creative tour de force full of hopefulness. It represents some of the finest work and the most sophisticated art forms the field has seen. Hope in a Collapsing World is beautiful, breathtaking, moving, and thoughtful."--Jo-Anne Dillabough, Professor, Sociology of Young People and Global Cultures and Sociology of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
"This is a book that inspires as it educates. It charts ways in which listening can be made a truly democratic practice, one that calls forth connection, compassion, and care. Theatre provides an affective medium through which young people can speak to the world, and invite audiences to enter their acts of care. In activating care, they sustain hope. Hope is here revealed to be a collective process of turning towards the world with shared responsibility for its precarious future."--Helen Cahill, Emeritus Professor, Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Australia
"This book is vital. At a moment when everyone needs to feel connected, Gallagher's empathetic and meticulous study of theatre with young people brings the hope we need. Witnessing playwright Andrew Kushnir and theatre educators reaching across the world is moving and beautiful. Listening to young people's stories - becoming attuned to their dreams and vulnerabilities - is not simply a moment of creative care, but a lasting political act."--Helen Nicholson, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Royal Holloway, University of London
"An emotional and artistic feast, Gallagher's book is an outstanding account of five years of transnational theatre-based exploration. Hope in a Collapsing World thinks carefully alongside an artistic and research process to inspire us as theatre makers to listen more profoundly. I would recommend it to anyone seeking respectful ways of working with and learning from young people as they demand a more just future."--James Thompson, Professor of Applied Theatre, University of Manchester