Workshop and training: professional practices with art in contemporary settings

Abstract

The workshop as a productive and training space, defines a widely studied field in the human and social sciences, with special relevance in contemporary scenarios of technologization, neoliberalism, and social and institutional crisis. In this context, I propose the hypothesis of the workshop as a way to organize education with strong potential for training in a professional practice imbued with artistry—that is, guided by the desire and ability to produce high-quality work. This proposal is framed within the postdoctoral project ―Self-Knowledge and Knowledge about Professional Practice in Training: Contributions to its Understanding from Diverse Perspectives,‖ which is part of the Ubacyt research project ―Self-Knowledge in Professional Performance: Conditions of its Formation.‖ The direct antecedents coincide in the qualities of the workshop that foster training for reflective and artisanal performance. My theoretical foundations stem from institutional analysis, reflective pedagogy, and pragmatic philosophy, and I incorporate Sennett's interpretive sociology, which I explored in greater depth during my postdoctoral studies. The developments I present focus on two conditions that I consider as key to the workshop's potential as a training space. Namely: the workshop group and the professional community, and the trainer’s style. Finally, I revisit the comprehensive and questioning nodes about the workshop, focusing on its implications for the processes of subjectivation and support of social bonds, as well as the ethical and political responsibilities of performance in the face of contemporary times of violence and fragmentation.