Performance Economies

The newly established Performance Economies working group seek to convene at annual conferences every year to investigate how materialist methodologies and theorisations of political economy can generate new investigations into theatre and performance.

KEYWORDS

• cultural/historical materialism
• labour, employment, management
• performance logistics and infrastructures
• social and economic Reproduction

Mission Statement 

The performance economies group seeks to investigate how materialist methodologies and theorisations of political economy can generate new investigations into theatre and performance. The necessity to critically consider performance through an economic lens has become even more acute in a context where capitalist modes of human organisation contribute to the ever rising threats posed by the climate crisis and racial capitalism, undermining people’s ability to create and enjoy a liveable life.  Contributions might consider how performance production and reception can illuminate ideological formations, labour and employment practices in the creative industries including questions of social reproduction, cultural materialist approaches to institutions and modes of funding and cultural policy as well as how performance studies might conversely shed light on every day economies and modes of economic circulation.

Working Group Convenors

Caoimhe Mader McGuinness (Kingston University London) c.madermcguinness@kingston.ac.uk

Clio Unger (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London) clio.Unger@cssd.ac.uk

Call For Papers IFTR 2025

Ekstasis | Subversion | Metamorphosis: Investigating Performance Economies in the Carnivalesque

The Performance Economies working group invites scholars to engage with the intersections between carnival, performance, and political economy at the IFTR 2025 conference in Cologne. Carnival, with its playful inversions of social hierarchies and its celebration of excess, offers a unique lens through which to analyse how material and economic forces shape the production, distribution, and reception of performance. In a world where capitalist structures exacerbate violence, the climate crisis, racial inequality, and precarious labour, performance economies can illuminate how these systemic pressures operate, specifically within and/or against the transgressive nature of carnival. Moreover, as acts of transgression are increasingly harnessed by hegemonic far-right forces  – as witnessed in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and incitements worldwide against subaltern and surplus populations  –  materialist methodologies can help investigate what counter-hegemonic practices might still offer direct acts of resistance.* The carnivalesque is a space of ekstasis, subversion, and metamorphosis, all of which are deeply intertwined with the economies of performance.

Ekstasis—being ‘beyond’ or ‘outside of oneself—parallels the precarious conditions under which artists and cultural workers often operate. The exuberant energy of carnival suggests a momentary suspension of everyday economic constraints, yet the labour behind its production remains largely invisible. As sites of mass tourism, Carnival may offer the visitor temporary relief from drudgery and hierarchy yet such spaces are necessarily underpinned by their own economic, and often informal, structures. How can performance reveal the hidden economies that sustain cultural production, and how does it transgress traditional economic boundaries?

Subversion is at the heart of carnival's promise: it upends established orders, mocks authority, and presents alternative worlds. Yet, because carnival can serve as a release valve for social tensions, it can easily be commodified and co-opted by capitalist and colonial structures. Carnival may simply reinforce hegemonic social relations, as the temporally bound experience of subversion stands in for wider revolutionary change. How do performances that appear subversive or transgressive engage with the realities of labour, funding, and institutional power? 

Metamorphosis in carnival reflects both external transformation (through costumes, masks, and rituals) and internal shifts, where the experience of performance can lead to personal and social change. But metamorphosis is also an economic process, where value is constantly being reshaped and redistributed. The creative industries are rife with transformations—of labour into commodities, of art into entertainment, wreckage into salvage, and of cultural practices into monetised experiences. How does performance navigate the tension between these metamorphic processes, and how do economic frameworks shape or constrain the possibility of true transformation?

For the Cologne conference, we are particularly interested in papers that explore the following questions:

• How do materialist approaches to political economy reveal the underlying structures of labour, production, and circulation in performance?

• In what ways can the carnivalesque serve as a space of resistance to capitalist modes of organisation, and where does it fall short?

• How do creative industries manage, exploit, or transform cultural labour, and how do these dynamics intersect with race, gender, and class?

• What possibilities and political functions does performance offer in spaces of deep economic precarity produced by war, famine, and displacement? 

• How do the logistics and infrastructures of performance (funding, institutional support, labour practices) shape or constrain the possibilities for subversive or transformative performances?

• Can performance itself offer new models for thinking about economic exchange, value creation, or modes of social reproduction?

• How does Carnival as a site of tourism highlight local and global economic structures, especially in its relationship to surplus populations, informal economies, and forms of sex work?

• How do racial, sexual, and gendered traditions of Othering at Carnivals participate in wider economic and political stratification?

We welcome papers that address the intersection of performance and economics through case studies, theoretical explorations, or historical analyses, with a focus on how carnival and the carnivalesque might illuminate these dynamics. (However, as this is the inaugural meeting of the group,we also invite papers that address the general theme of performance economies and engage with topics related to the group’s mission statement.)

* Francesca Albanese (2024), 'Anatomy of a Genocide - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 to Human Rights Council of the United Nations', https://www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55.

Abstract Submission

Abstracts can be submitted via the IFTR Cambridge Core portal.
Please note that you must renew your membership or become a member in order to submit: https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr.

The deadline for abstracts for working group papers is 15 January 2025.

Papers of up to 3,000 words in length are to be distributed by 9 May 2025.

For information about the general conference, please check the IFTR website. Please also check for updates on the Performance Economies Working Group page at https://iftr.org/working-groups/performance-economies.

If you have questions about the group or about attending please contact the working group convenors, Caoimhe Mader McGuinness (c.madermcguinness@kingston.ac.uk) and Clio Unger (Clio.Unger@cssd.ac.uk)

Working Group Practice

This is a semi-open group – papers are distributed and read by all the participants ahead of the meeting. At the Working Group sessions presenters give short overviews of their paper, followed by a longer discussion period with all participants. This method allows ideas to be discussed, debated, and evaluated, with participants suggesting directions for the presenters’ work-in-progress. If you are interested in joining the sessions without presenting, please contact us and we will make the papers available in advance of the conference.