Reimagining Community (Mohan, 2004)

Dia Mohan or now she is known as Dia Da Costa is a faculty member of Queen's University in Kingston, Canada.

Her paper Reimagining Community (Mohan, 2004) is cited in 5 papers (4 of which are written or co-written by her). I would like to thank both Da Costa and Ruwanpura for providing me access to their papers.

1. Da Costa, D. and Philip McMichael, (2007) "The Poverty of the Global Order" Globalizations 4(4): 588-602.
Da Costa talks about institutional mandates and one's action may not run congruent, especially when poverty comes knocking. She cites an example where institution mandates that a father should invest in their children education but often in reality this may not be possible when the family runs into poverty and both parents' lack of success in securing a job. Hence when this happens, they turn to their children to work to help ends meet. The institution judges both parents for not caring for their children's future and parents do not have the institution to empathize with them. Da Costa calls this representational inequality between institution and self and makes people stricken with poverty believe that they befitting a less dignified place in the economic order. Jana Sanskriti Theater performance allows them to speak out what they feel and engage the communtiy in social dialog about the issues they face.

2. Da Costa, D, (2008) "'Spoiled Sons' and 'Sincere Daughters': Schooling, Security, and Empowerment in rural West Bengal, India" in Signs: Journal of Women and Culture 33(2): 283-308.
Da Costa shares that there are men who are comfortable intervening in Jana Sanskriti Theater performances taking the role of female characters. She feels that such enagement has potential to transform social norms (men recognize the rights of women who are often discriminated in a patriarchic society) . Some anecdotes from this intervention was when men voiced their objection about dowry and lack of opportunity given to girls to advance their education.

3. Da Costa, D, (2008) "Tensions of Neo-liberal Development: State Discourse and Dramatic Oppositions in West Bengal" in Contributions to Indian Sociology 41 (3): 287-320.
Da Costa talks about Jana Sanskriti Theater Group's activities and she in the view that they have potential to be the catalyst to get the local community (where the group carries out its activities) to engage in rich social dialog about social issues through its performances and fieldwork activities.

4. Caron, Cynthia M. and Dia Da Costa, (2007) "There’s a Devil on Wayamba Beach: Social Dramas of Development and Citizenship in Northwest Sri Lanka" Journal of Asian and African Studies 42(5): 415-445.
Da Costa talks about legitimacy that it is not determined by one person or institution because the power to determine meaning rests upon every individuals in a society. She see the potential of getting audience to intervene in stage play (what she term as "social drama") to shape the outcome of a performance as a way to encourage them to make meaning not based on what society or institution imposed of them but that reflects more of their inner voice.

5. Ruwanpura, K. N., (2007) "Awareness and action: the ethno-gender dynamics of Sri Lankan NGOs" Gender, Place and Culture - Journal of Feminist Geography 14(3): 317-333.
Ruwanpura talks about NGO activities and in particular theater work where she feels to have the potential to be the engine for social transformation and change. When given the opportunity to script plays on issues central to their lives, women in a patriarchal society see this as a social space for them to create real life realities in a way that will empower them to be active agents to initiate change to their daily lives and thus enhancing their self-worth.

In brief, the common theme I see here is that representations in cultural play have potential to enhance individual self-worth and transform society where participants make commitment to their off-stage lives through their scriptwriting and on-stage experiences in shaping alternative outcomes to the performances.