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The aim of this master s thesis is to describe and to understand the media use in social circus activities. Aspects concerning the media use in this context were studied, analyzed and explained using Hasebrink s (2012) definitions concerning the media use in general. This is a qualitative comparative case study that is motivated by the idea of media pedagogy and social circus as evolving social phenomena which share similar objectives. In addition to the framework of media educational research, the theoretical, methodological and pedagogical approach of social circus, play significant roles in this study.

This dissertation is about the circus, but it is also about how we think through a range of possibilities for individual and social change in the contemporary post-Fordist or neoliberal moment. In the last 40 years geographers, along side other scholars, have documented an increasingly close relationship between social, political, and economic aspects of life in western countries. These shifts have raised concerns over shrinking spaces of resistance and loss of counter hegemonic voices, and increased interest in transgressive or ‘outside’ spaces and bodies as sites of resistance, escape, and social change. Two contested sites that seem to offer promise for resistance, yet are simultaneously critiqued for their participation in dominant discourses, are art (or creative labour) and the body. Despite prolific literatures on these topics in geography in the last decade, links between creative labour, theories of embodiment, and the living practices of cultural workers are still far too rare. To address this I examine the intersection of theories of research, labour, art, discipline, embodiment and politics, understood through the daily practices of circus performers doing highly physical and embodied work. I focus in particular on clowns and aerialists, performance forms to which I have outstanding access as a performer in these genres. I addition to extensive participant observation over several years of performance work, my research is based on 26 elite interviews with key performers in the Canadian circus community, and an ephemeral archive of visual and textual materials. The resonance of questions about the nature of social research, art and work, and disciplined and fluid subjectivities, opens up new space for thinking across often-disconnected spheres. I believe the presence of circus performers’ lived experiences and my own embodied knowledge throughout this analysis deepens our understanding of political possibilities across many different spaces. [author resume]

Depuis les années 1980, l'apprentissage de la profession d'artiste de cirque, à l'instar d'autres professions artistiques, se déroule dans des écoles professionnelles hiérarchisées par l'Etat, et n'est plus réservé au seul cercle familial du " cirque traditionnel ". L'intégration du cirque au Ministère de la Culture dès 1979 et la mise en œuvre de politiques culturelles en sa faveur, ont en effet engendré un processus d'institutionnalisation et de scolarisation de la formation, mais aussi de légitimation sociale et artistique du " cirque contemporain ". Dans ce contexte, ce travail de thèse se propose d'étudier la socialisation professionnelle des apprentis artistes de cirque dans six écoles françaises, au statut varié, et selon une démarche alliant différentes échelles d'analyse et méthodologies. A partir de recherches documentaires, d'entretiens auprès d'une quarantaine d'acteurs et d'observations réalisées au sein de chaque école, l'objet de ce travail est de comprendre et relier les processus qui participent d'une part, à la dynamique et à la structuration d'un espace concurrentiel de formation et, d'autre part, à la socialisation professionnelle des apprentis artistes dans des écoles prises dans une configuration particulière et dans les tensions historiques qui ont marqué la constitution du cirque en sous-champ artistique. [résumé de l'auteur]

Resilience, adaptability, and transformability are all tightly linked to the notion of change, whether in respect to coping with, adapting to, or harnessing it. But in order to understand these forces of change, we first need to recognize its counterpart: identity. Identity of a social-ecological system is not merely a static set of quantifiable feedbacks or indicators, but a more qualitative characterization of what results from the overlap of the social and the ecological. To fully articulate these ideas, I turn to a unique and enduring phenomenon: the traveling circus. Through the many forms they have taken over the last 150 yr, circuses have changed significantly while sustaining a singular identity. As a successful and enduring social system, their intriguing history exposes the nuances of sustainability theory, from resilience to pathologies, and illustrates that sustainability requires a complex dynamic between identity, tradition, and change [author summary]