ECOSYSTEM BOUNDARIES AND THE DISCOURSE OF EFFICIENCY: AN EXAMINATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF INDUSTRIAL–MODERN SYSTEM DESIGN THROUGH FORUM THEATRE

In industrial system design is shaped around the principles of efficiency, growth, and scalability, prioritising measurable outputs and short-term performance indicators. While this design logic technically optimises production processes, it frequently externalises the ecological foundations that make such production possible. Although industrial production models appear to deliver high levels of efficiency in the present, it has become increasingly evident that this efficiency undermines the fundamental conditions of agricultural production, including ecosystem services such as clean air, carbon sequestration, flood regulation, erosion control, water purification, disease and natural pest regulation, and pollination [1]. This situation reveals a fundamental contradiction inherent in efficiency-oriented system design. Techniques, practices, and policies that prioritise efficiency gains as the primary—if not the sole—variable simultaneously erode the natural resources upon which productivity depends, thereby placing their own continuity at risk. Dependence on fossil fuels, rising input costs, climate change, and ecosystem degradation emerge as the long-term consequences of this contradiction, rendering the future of production increasingly fragile [1].

The concept of ecosystem or planetary boundaries demonstrates that nature is not an infinite resource, but a system defined by specific biophysical thresholds [2]. Decisions taken across domains such as agriculture, urbanisation, and production systems are therefore not merely technical choices; they constitute interventions that actively reorganise ecological relationships. From this perspective, the issue is not simply production itself, but rather the values upon which production is based and the boundaries that are disregarded in the process. Industrial–modern system design tends to assume nature as a passive and limitless resource, often overlooking the reality that ecosystems are feedback-responsive systems with thresholds, whose functioning changes once these limits are exceeded. At the same time, environmental governance processes frequently centre the values of particular actors, while marginalising local knowledge systems and plural forms of human–ecosystem relationships from decision-making mechanisms. This exclusionary structure not only deepens environmental degradation but also reproduces social inequalities [3].

At this point, the need is not merely to discuss the existence of ecosystem boundaries at a theoretical level, but to reveal—within an experiential learning space—how decision-making processes are conducted, legitimised, and how their consequences are rendered invisible. For this very reason, the forum theatre approach, which enables collective reflection on moments of decision-making, conflicts, and alternatives, offers a particularly meaningful methodological framework for this study.

Forum theatre, pioneered by Augusto Boal through his work Theatre of the Oppressed, transforms the spectator from a passive observer into an active subject capable of intervening in the situations presented on stage and reshaping the process itself. In this respect, forum theatre is closely aligned with the creative drama tradition, which understands learning not solely as a cognitive process, but as one that unfolds through experience, sensory engagement, and lived situations. Active participation allows individuals not only to observe decisions and their consequences, but to experience them directly [4]. For this reason, forum theatre can be understood as a critical space that enables the re-examination of decision-making processes legitimised through the discourse of efficiency, rendering their ecological consequences visible and allowing alternative ways of thinking to be explored collectively. Participants are invited to think not through abstract concepts, but through concrete moments of decision-making and their cascading effects.

Recent sustainability and social science literature has increasingly criticised hierarchical and exclusionary approaches to knowledge production, foregrounding the concept of the co-production of knowledge. As emphasised by García et al. [5] in their work examining forum theatre as an ethical research method, theatre-based approaches transform knowledge from something “extracted” into a process that is jointly produced, experienced, and debated with participants. This approach both flattens the researcher–participant relationship and brings to the surface the emotional, cultural, and political dimensions of ecological issues, alongside their technical aspects.

I consider this method to be particularly effective in making decision-making processes and the consequences of these decisions visible. Within the scope of the selected topic, the focus of the forum theatre application will not be on whether individual characters are portrayed as good or bad, but rather on the logic through which decisions are produced and the outcomes this logic generates.

At the conclusion of the workshop Theatre of the Oppressed and Indigenous Peoples, facilitated by workshop leader Dominique Devi at the 17th International Creative Drama in Education Seminar and Congress [6], the following reflection was shared with participants:

“The most important aspect of this method (Theatre of the Oppressed) is that it confronts this sense of hopelessness and begins to break it. Because out there, there are people who genuinely want to do something to remind us that change is possible. As we continue to practise, more will follow. Here, we are practising human rights. This is not something that has a ‘practice’ like sport; without practice, theory remains suspended in the air. Without belief, there can be no solution.”

These words clearly illustrate why forum theatre offers a powerful practice for fields in which solutions cannot be simply theorised—and even when they are, their implementation remains profoundly complex due to the entanglement of social, societal, systemic, and political dynamics.

Because more often than not, when we dare to question systems built upon oppressor–oppressed relations—systems we know no longer function, yet continue to dominate—we are immediately confronted with the question:

“So what is your alternative?” 

Moreover, this alternative is expected to be fully planned, universally applicable, and flawless. It would hardly be an exaggeration to suggest that this alternative is also likely to become the “new oppressor” within the same oppressor–oppressed dynamic.

For this very reason, the issue is not about producing an ideal or complete solution, but about a more fundamental problem of understanding: recognising that change first becomes possible on a conceptual, emotional, and collective level. Forum theatre opens precisely this space.

References

[1] Gliessman, S. R. (2015). Agroecology: The ecology of sustainable food systems (3rd ed.). CRC Press.

[2] Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E. F., … Foley, J. A. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461(7263), 472–475. https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a

[3] Olvera-Hernández, S., Mesa-Jurado, M. A., Novo, P., Martin-Ortega, J., Walsh, A., Holmes, G., & Borchi, A. (2023). Theatre as a mechanism to explore representation of local people’s values in environmental governance: A case study from Chiapas, Mexico. People and Nature, 5, 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10420

[4] Adıgüzel, H. Ö. (2006). The relationship between experiential learning, creative drama, and process drama. Creative Drama Journal, 1(1), 1–10.

[5] Mancilla García, M., Bertemes Lalia, L., Mubai, M., et al. (2025). A meaningful performative experience: Using Forum Theatre as an ethical method in sustainability science. Sustainability Science, 20, 1775–1789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-025-01699-3

[6] Kırkar, A., & Yılmaz, N. (Eds.). (2015). 17th International Congress on Creative Drama in Education: Creative drama, social awareness, and rights education (1st ed.). Pegem Akademi.