'Embedded' Popular Education and Somatic Knowledge Exchange as Research Methodologies

This paper examines the use of the emancipatory methodologies of ‘Embodied’ Popular Education, Theatre for Social Change and an emergent ‘spatial vocabulary of power’ in the context of co-produced participant led research in Merseyside, UK. It explores the process and outcomes of the research using narrative findings in the words of the participants themselves. Popular Education in this context is more effective when ‘embodied’ or somatic, and the combination with drama is particularly effective in the conscientisation of participants. These practices need to be constantly reinvented to maintain the intentionality of the process, and its potential for liberation. The research also reveals congruences between practices drawn from drama, Freirian principles, and decolonial frameworks, which are mutually and beneficially reinforcing. Finally it demonstrates the application of these methodologies in diverse fields such as public health, trauma informed practice, and the development of ‘communities of change’.