Spectators in the Field of Politics

Spectators in the Field of Politics explores the implications of bring political spectators out into the open, using a theater metaphor. This book finds that spectators are powerful in ways that are so far unaccountable. It is not the distinction between actors and spectators that is politically problematic, but the distinction between spectators and objects. Filling out the metaphor with theater theory produces a viable model of democratic politics that incorporates spectators in positive and meaningful ways, while providing an ethics to manage distance, provided the distinction between actors and spectators is maintained. This provides a significant challenge to participation theorists who want to turn spectators into actors.

Sandey Fitzgerald holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art in Technical Production from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Australia and a doctorate in Politics from Macquarie University, Australia. She has worked in theater in a number of capacities and was involved in pioneering theater-in-education in Australia. She currently teaches and researches in the disciplines of Politics and Sociology at Macquarie University, where her research is focused on the intersections between these interests, and on spectatorship: its implications, obligations and limitations.