Re-enchanting the world with performing arts: stories from Cambodia July 13, 2015 6.23am AEST Catherine Grant Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Research Fellow at University of Newcastle Matthew Harper Undergraduate student at University of Newcastle What we really need in this capitalist, power-driven, exploitative, consumerist world, according to social critic David Korten, is … new stories. Flippant? Not necessarily. If “new stories” means alternative ways to envisage living out our lives, then the very future of humanity may depend on them. As Korten argues in his book The Great Turning (2006), new stories can re-orient us toward a different set of values that prioritise equality, responsibility and social justice. Where to find these new stories? Arguably not only (or even mostly) from technology or science, but “from the imaginative resources of a society often expressed in non-utilitarian ways.” That is, from the arts. Creating new stories through the arts We, the authors of this piece, are in Cambodia on an arts-based service-learning project, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (L) in rehearsal with one of the members of the Sophiline Arts Ensemble. Khmer Arts Theater, Takhmao (Kandal Province), Cambodia. June 26, 2015. Photo by Chris Philips