MAKING MONEY STRANGE: THE UK ‘FISCAL STATE’, HEGEMONY, AND CONSCIENTISATION THROUGH EMBODIED POPULAR EDUCATION

Collective Encounters and Aidan Jolly, through the participatory Radical Re-<br/>searchers project, are developing methodologies that combine popular education and participatory Theatre for Social Change in a process of ‘Embodied Popular Education’. This workshop presentation explored two provocations in development that aim to conscientize participants in relation to the ‘Fiscal State’, asking whether its hegemony is as inevitable as it seems, and how understanding money can lead to meaningful social change. Provocation 1 addresses the scale and meaning of wealth by using local house values as an alternative index of wealth. In Provocation 2 The Money Game participants create and circulate their own currency, then discuss the experience, what can be learned from it, and the implications for real world under- standing. The learning is then used to create dramatic scenarios that make the strangeness of money visible to a wider audience, and explore possible alternatives.<br/>The presentation suggests new ways in which Popular Education, taking place out-side the formal sector, creates sites of conscientisation that enable communities in struggle to imagine the world otherwise.