Performative Approaches for social innovation. The Model of the Poti Academy

Abstract

The article introduces the methodological path and the first outcomes of a participatory research
project aimed at analyzing and testing the performative learning methods of the Poti Pictures
Academy, used for the training of disabled actors (Kolb, 1984; Di Nubila, & Fedeli, 2010). Questions
of research are: what outcomes in terms of autonomy, relational, expressive and metacognitive
skills can be elicited through those methods? How and to what extent can the drama-based
methods be adopted with people with cognitive impairments? In order to address those questions,
the contribution describes the training path of the Poti Academy, and explores the efficacy
of the performative methods in building transformative outcomes with people with disabilities
and in producing social innovation in short medium, long term range.