Participatory Arts in International Development (Rethinking Development)

This book explores the practical delivery of participatory arts projects in international development. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of academics, international development professionals and arts practitioners, the book engages honestly with the competing challenges faced by the different groups of people involved.

Participatory arts are becoming increasingly popular in international development circles, fuelled in part by the increased accessibility of audio-visual media in the digital age, and also by the move towards participatory discourses in the wake of the UN’s Agenda 2030. The book asks:

• What do participatory arts projects look like in practice, and why are they used as an international development tool?
• How can we develop practical and sustainable development projects on the ground, localising best practice according to cultural, economic and linguistic contexts?
• What are the enablers of, and barriers to, successful participatory initiatives, and how can we evaluate past projects to learn and feed into future projects?

Written to appeal to both academics and practitioners, this book would also be suitable for teaching on courses related to participatory development, community arts, and culture and development.

Paul Cooke is Centenary Chair of World Cinemas at the University of Leeds, UK. He is currently the Principal Investigator on Changing the Story, a project looking at the ways in which heritage and arts organisations can help young people to shape civil society in post-conflict countries.

Inés Soria-Donlan is Project Manager of Changing the Story at the University of Leeds. Since 2008 Inés has worked internationally across the academic, cultural and creative sectors as a producer, project manager, creative practitioner and researcher, with a continual focus on youth, diversity and arts-led participation.