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How do cities determine who has the right to station themselves in iconic public spaces? This article explores this question by analyzing the evolution of Barcelona's approach to regulating street performance, with a particular focus on regulations pertaining to 'living statues'. Although most buskers have been expelled from the Ramblas, one of the city's most emblematic walkways, living statues remain permitted on the promenade. This, I argue, is due to the general embrace of statues as part of local tradition and their integration within city‐branding campaigns, as well as their own organizing and boundary work. As the image Barcelona seeks to cultivate has changed, however, the right of statues to station themselves in public space has become ever more tenuous. My findings speak to broader questions regarding how cities determine the boundaries of 'urban desirability', as well as why and how such boundaries change over time. They also elucidate the strategies that groups located at the margins employ in attempting to position themselves favorably in relation to such boundaries. More generally, they highlight how current approaches to analyzing urban inclusion and exclusion may benefit from a more sustained engagement with the burgeoning social scientific literature on symbolic boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An evaluation of a pilot street theatre programme presented challenges and stimulated reflections on how evaluation can better contribute to build knowledge on communication for development. The programme addressed racism in Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda and Dominican Republic. It engaged communities effectively. The evaluation faced challenges in dealing with this sensitive subject, dealing with local partners limited monitoring capacity and methodological challenges to assess attitudes and change. It suggests the need for greater collaboration across evaluation and research and among different specialisms to address the evidence and methodological challenges, as well as more resourcing of impact evaluation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the politicized use of street theatre by an adivasi (indigenous) community in the city of Ahmedabad, India. We consider Chharas' deployment of theatre as a socio-spatial tactic in two interlocking registers: first, as a means through which to enact a re-scripting of criminalized subjectivity in the post-colonial moment; second and equally, to advance the practice and potential for democratic politics-a space for constructive encounter and dialogue across difference. We argue that performance furthers the staging of affirmative subjectivities, while providing a mechanism to challenge who has the right to be seen and heard within a public sphere. This article draws on ongoing collaborative research in Gujarat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of tagging in relation to social literacy practices. The author discusses the rules and codes assigned to tagging, as well as the literacy practices imbued with intent and meaning associated with tagging. The article discusses who tags, the purpose of tagging, and the underlying meanings of tagging as a literacy act. The author states that in order to help situate tagging as a literacy act, the article needs to address the notion of literacy as a social practice. Thereafter, the author offers a perspective on how learning occurs within a particular community of practice. Lastly, the article looks into adolescents' alternative literacy.

On the eve of the royal wedding, two anthropologists and an actor - members of a street theatre troupe known as 'The Government of the Dead'- were arrested for conspiracy to stage a performance. We adopt a Bakhtinian perspective of carnival laughter as essential to the scientific investigation of officialdom and ceremonial power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]