Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The arts as a means of cultural integration: a Chilean case study.

Rodr�guez-Remedi, Alejandra

Authors

Alejandra Rodr�guez-Remedi



Contributors

John Baldacchino
Supervisor

Charles Juwah
Supervisor

Abelardo Castro Hidalgo
Supervisor

Abstract

How might the arts help to unveil and integrate realities so as to facilitate shared meanings and understandings between peoples and thus generate the conditions for the participatory, creative cultural diversity which may contribute to the construction of more democratic societies? Taking contemporary Chile as its case study, this research delves into the potential of the arts to mirror and integrate fragmented sectors in a societys drive towards human development. To this end, it uses an interdisciplinary methodology comprising complementary empirical and theoretical approaches so as to investigate the arts as transcultural formative experiences. The former entails a comparative analysis of two groups of Chilean artists (one group in exile in Britain, the other resident in Chile) through data obtained primarily via in-depth interviews. The theoretical approach contextualises and universally grounds these social actors discourses in order to identify commonalities which may bind both groups together. The thesis addresses the question of how these artists make art to construct, mediate and sustain meanings, senses of belongings and humanising spaces for transformative learning, exchange and integration in society, giving valuable insights into subjective as well as collective processes of identity construction in the era of globalisation. The findings take the shape of a written text following the logic of the categories emerging from the artists narratives, together with a series of video projects - an emergent outcome of the research. This research is situated at the junctures of critical, cultural and educational theory. It is of interest to cultural policymakers as well as scholars of contemporary art theory, social history, political philosophy, Latin Americanism, exilic narratives and the poetics of the audiovisual.

Citation

RODRÍGUEZ-REMEDI, A. 2007. The arts as a means of cultural integration: a Chilean case study. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

Thesis Type Thesis
Deposit Date Oct 23, 2008
Publicly Available Date Oct 23, 2008
Keywords Culture; Arts; Integration; Chile; Identity; Society; Pedagogy; Exile; Video; Interdisciplinary
Public URL http://hdl.handle.net/10059/231
Contract Date Oct 23, 2008
Award Date Nov 30, 2007

Files




Downloadable Citations