Political openings in Developmental Transformations: Performing an ambivalent love letter

Abstract

Abstract This article is a performative exploration of Developmental Transformations’ (DvT) potential as a political practice of resistance and imagining the world in which we want to live. Following a review of the literature on DvT and social justice, this article employs a radical performative methodology, which attempts to embody in its form the principles of DvT practice and the carnivalesque. This writing style aims to disrupt and engage the reader, point to how knowledge is produced through the status quo of academic writing, and to spark the creative impulses that drive many to drama therapy in the first place. This article attempts to articulate ways in which DvT might allow us to engage with complexities of social justice, power, and inequities within an aesthetic, relational frame. It also points to the complexities and failings of attempting to deploy DvT, or any drama therapy practice, within political or social justice frameworks. The article does not attempt to resolve these tensions for the reader.