On Being Unreasonable: Breaking the Rules and Making Things Better

Written by Kirsty Sedgman

Narrated by Kirsty Sedgman

Manners, order and respect... these are all ideals we subscribe to. In opposed positions, we ought to be able to 'agree to disagree'. Today's world is built from structures of standards and reason, but it is imperative to ask who constructed these norms, and why. We are more divided than ever before-along lines of race, gender, class, disability-and it's time to question who benefits the most. What if our propensity to measure human behaviour against rules and reason is actually more problematic than it might seem?

Kirsty Sedgman shows how power dynamics and the social biases involved have resulted in a wide acceptance of what people should and shouldn't do, but they create discriminatory realities and amount to a societal façade that is dangerous for genuine social progress. From taking the knee to breastfeeding in public, from neighbourhood vigilantism to the Colston Four-and exploring ideas around ethics, justice, society, and equality along the way-Sedgman explores notions of civility throughout history up to now.

On Being Unreasonable mounts a vital and spirited defence of why and how being unreasonable can help improve the world. It examines and parses the pros and cons of our rules around reason, but leaves us with the rousing question: What if behaving unreasonably at times might be the best way to bring about meaningful change that is long overdue?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Release date: Feb 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9780571366880

Kirsty Sedgman

A theatre lecturer and researcher at the University of Bristol, Kirsty Sedgman asks how different people make sense of live performance events. Her work explores the interplay between audiences, cultural value, fandom, community and place. Her book Locating the Audience (Intellect, 2016) was the first to explore how people developed relationships with a cultural institution at the time of its formation: the then brand-new National Theatre Wales. She is currently working on a three-year British Academy postdoctoral research fellowship investigating audience engagements with regional theatre through time.