Interdisciplinary Acts:

doi:10.1017/9781009294904.005

Chapter 3 - Interdisciplinary Acts:

Learning about Theatre from the Social Sciences

from Part I - Planning

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2024

Michael McKinnie

Edited by

Tracy C. Davis and

Paul Rae

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Tracy C. Davis: Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois
Paul Rae: Affiliation:
University of Melbourne

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Summary

In this chapter, Michael McKinnie explores how methods drawn from the social sciences can help theatre scholars formulate different, and more systematic, ways to think about theatre and its place in the world. Social scientists make ‘moves’ with their material that theatre scholars are unlikely to make with theirs. When transposed to analysis of theatre, these moves suggest different, sometimes counter-intuitive, approaches. ‘Tricks’, an idea taken from sociologist Howard S. Becker, are formal procedures that help draw out theatre’s relationality at subsequent stages of the research process. Thinking about theatre’s place in the world poses a wide variety of problems that TaPS is not always equipped to tackle. Theatre scholars need to make different moves, and formulate new tricks, to begin to address them.

Keywords

interdisciplinary Howard Becker macroeconomics microcosmos social sciences

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Guide to Mixed Methods Research for Theatre and Performance Studies , pp. 72 - 86
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009294904.005 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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