Nowadays there is rising interest in participatory and community-based artistic practices, which have been built and developed in a dual direction. If, on the one hand, contemporary artistic creation has deepened its participatory dimension, on the other hand, education and community and social intervention have resorted to artistic languages as an alternative to more traditional approaches. At a particularly vulnerable time for democracies and for our collective experience, this book crosses and updates the contributions of art, participation and politics, in an intense dialogue between theory and practice.

The book is based on studies, that have never been published because of their dimension and depth, developed by the author in Portugal and Brazil over the last four years, involving 332 people from 23 theatre groups. The fundamental elements of participatory and community artistic practices are discussed therein, as well as the potential strengths and weaknesses of creative processes in their connection with civic and political participation.