Performativity

Performing Schengen: myths, rituals and the making of European territoriality beyond Europe

by Ruben Zaiotti

Review of International Studies April 2011 Vol. 37 No.2 : pp 537-556

Myth-making has historically been an essential component of the modern state's quest for territorial control and... more Myth-making has historically been an essential component of the modern state's quest for territorial control and legitimacy. As a sui generis post-national political entity in search for identity and recognition, the European Union (EU) seems to mimicking its more established national counterpart. By formulating and reproducing a narrative that hails Europe's border control regime (‘Schengen’) as a success story of European integration and by deploying evocative imagery at Europe's common borders, the EU is in fact trying to establish itself as an integral part of the European political landscape. This article argues that what we are witnessing today in Europe is indeed the emergence of the ‘myth of Schengen’; however, the regime's mythopoiesis goes beyond the EU's official narrative and symbolic representations. To capture the full range of actors, locations and activities involved in the establishment and reproduction of this post-national myth, it is necessary to shift the attention to the performative dimension of this process. To support this argument, the article relies on the insights of anthropological and sociological works that have emphasised the role of rituality and performativity in constituting social structures and identities. These insights are then applied to examine the rituals and performances characterising four cases of ‘unofficial’ Schengen myth-making beyond Europe: a hotel in Beijing, street kids in Kinshasa, a British music band, and a group of Eastern European artists.

Ways of Reading. Visual Music Course Development at OCADU

by Robert Appleton

Ways of Reading. A course at OCAD University conceived and taught by Robert Appleton using sound, text and image.

How to Become an Iconic Social Thinker: The Intellectual Pursuits of Malinowski and Foucault

by Dominik Bartmanski

Published in European Journal of Social Theory

The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure... more The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure is to investigate the conditions under which social thinkers assume the iconic reputation. What does it take to become ‘a founding father’ of a humanistic discipline? How do social thinkers achieve the status of a trans-disciplinary star? Why some intellectuals attract tremendous attention and ‘go down in history’ despite personal and professional failures, while others enjoy only limited recognition or simply sink into oblivion, even if they have met all the standards of their day? Quite a few sociologists have tackled this elusive issue. Pierre Bourdieu, Michele Lamont and Randall Collins are among those who fleshed out strong explanatory frameworks. This project adds to this body of knowledge by emphasizing cultural factors that these authors downplayed in their seminal accounts, despite being aware of their significance. By showing why these underdeveloped aspects of their works need to be incorporated into the debate and how this can be achieved, this article introduces a new theorization of the iconic, lasting intellectual reputation substantiated by evidence from the lifeworks of Bronislaw Malinowski and Michel Foucault. As such, it aims, minimally, to make sociology of knowledge decisively ‘cultural’. Maximally, it seeks to demonstrate that the iconic success of intellectual intervention in social theory depends on carefully performed and contingently mediated engagement with the binary systems of symbolic classification.

Cézanne's Vision: Confront the Sciences With the Nature From Which They Came

by Hans H. Diebner

Studia UBB. Philosophia LVII, 33-57 (1/2012)

Pedagogy and performativity: Rendering laboratory lives in the documentary" Naturally obsessed: the making of a scientist".

by Natasha Myers

Performativity and Affectivity: Teaching and Learning Observations in England's Further Education Colleges

by Ursula Edgington

Accepted for Publication April 2012. In Press

Teaching and learning observations (TLOs) are used in educational environments worldwide to measure and improve... more Teaching and learning observations (TLOs) are used in educational environments worldwide to measure and improve quality and support professional development. TLOs can be positive, for teachers who enjoy opportunities to ‘perform’ their craft and/or engage in professional dialogue. However, if this crucial, collaborative developmental element is missing, a TLO becomes intrinsically evaluative in nature and creates complex emotions – within and beyond the classroom. For some teachers, affective reactions to perceived managerial intrusion into their professional space has a negative impact on them, and in turn, their students’ learning.
International research on TLOs has focused on schools or
universities. My research centres specifically on England’s Further Education colleges (FE). Through Interpretive Interactionism, investigate the different expectations, relationships and identities of teachers and (mis)conceptions of authenticity in TLOs. Teaching involves our unique (dis)embodied ‘performativity’ (Butler, 2004) or ‘emotional practice’ which is interpreted and judged by others (Denzin, 1989). Using the concept of ‘aesthetic labour’ (Witz, et al.,2003), I argue that rather than promoting positive transformation through reflection, TLOs promote a rejection of emotional ‘genuineness’ that causes anxiety through a fracturing of personal and professional identities.
Improving the effectiveness of TLOs should perhaps encompass
explicit dialogue about the affectivity involved in the process?

Can Photographs Make It So? Several Outbreaks of Valie Export’s Genital Panic,” in Hilde van Gelder and Helen Weestgeest, eds., Photography between Poetics and Politics. (Leuven: University Press Leuven, 2008)

by Mechtild Widrich

Differs in some parts from the revised version of 2012, particularly at the end.

Employing the term "performative" I look at the Marina Abramovic's restaging of Valie Export's Genital Panic... more Employing the term "performative" I look at the Marina Abramovic's restaging of Valie Export's Genital Panic at the Guggenheim Museum--I discuss the relationship between the photographs that were staged in the photographer's studio in Vienna, the claims of an actual action (first said to have happened in a porn cinema, a story later changed to "art cinema"--with various dates), and Abramovic's decisions to include the historiography of the piece in her performance. The text is relevant for the discussion of photography versus live event, but I am also trying to figure out how the imagine a performance as ONE work through sometimes conflicting fragments.

Trabajadores de lo escrito, materias de la información

by David Pontille

co-authored with Jérôme Denis, Revue d'Anthropologie des Connaissances 2012

Workers of writing, Materials of information

by David Pontille

co-authored with Jérôme Denis, Revue d'Anthropologie des Connaissances 2012

Travailleurs de l'écrit, matières de l'information

by David Pontille

co-authored with Jérôme Denis, Revue d'Anthropologie des Connaissances 2012

(Dis)entangling Desire in Passing

by Tyler Carson

Irene Redflield in Passing is a seemingly dull and insipid character in contrast to the flamboyant and hyperbolic... more Irene Redflield in Passing is a seemingly dull and insipid character in contrast to the flamboyant and hyperbolic nature of Clare Kendry. Yet, as Irene’s character develops she captures the critical reader’s attention, becoming a fruitful, complex, and intriguing object of analysis. At the beginning of the novel, Irene presents herself as a woman in control of her body, her emotions, and her social relations. However, with the return of her childhood friend Clare Kendry—whose lifestyle she strongly repudiates—Irene’s notions of herself become unhinged. Indeed, by the end of Passing, Irene’s entire sense of self becomes completely destabilized. This essay will explore Irene’s dyadic relationship with Clare and will analyze why her identity is troubled by the emergence of this character. I posit that Clare’s presence evokes some of Irene’s repressed and unspeakable queer desires, effectively challenging the statement that “to [Irene] security was the most important and desired thing in life” (Larsen, 1929, p. 107, emphasis added). An examination of Irene’s different positions and subjectivities—including race, class, and gender—will reveal how these identities intersect, interact and ultimately work to constrain and delimit her sexuality.

Die Klanglandschaft als ethnographisches Feld

by Fritz Schlüter

Master thesis submitted in April 2012

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle, die Klänge und Geräusche in unserem Alltag spielen und stellt verschiedene... more Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle, die Klänge und Geräusche in unserem Alltag spielen und stellt verschiedene Ansätze für die ethnographische Klangforschung vor.

Wie beeinflusst und prägt die alltägliche (urbane) Geräuschkulisse – verstanden als „sinnliche“ oder „affektive“ Geographie – unsere Lebenswelt und unser Verhalten? Inwiefern sind „Soundscapes“ (Schafer 1977) oder „Klanglandschaften“ regional spezifisch? Welche kulturellen Unterschiede sind bezüglich der Produktions- und Wahrnehmungsweisen von Klängen und Geräuschen auszumachen? Welche akustischen Praktiken und Strategien tragen zur kollektiven Orchestrierung von Klanglandschaften bei?

Der Ethnologie kommt im Kontext dieser Fragen, die den nicht nur wissenschaftlich, sondern auch experimentell und künstlerisch arbeitenden Forschungszweig der Sound Studies schon seit den 1960er Jahren beschäftigen, zweifellos eine Schlüsselposition zu. Dennoch ist der explizite Bezug auf die akustischen Dimensionen kultureller Praxis in der ethnographischen Forschung noch immer unterrepräsentiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen, indem einige der verstreut vorliegenden theoretischen und forschungspraktischen Ansätze zusammengetragen werden, die gemeinsam den aktuellen Forschungsstand konturieren. Insbesondere werden das europäische Klangforschungsprojekt Acoustic Environments in Change um Helmi Järviluoma, Heikki Uimonen und Noora Vikman (zwischen 1999 und 2011), die akustisch-ethnographischen Arbeiten von Steven Feld (zwischen 1982 und 2011) sowie Rowlands Atkinsons Entwurf einer sozial und politisch relevanten „sonic ecology“ der Stadt (zwischen 2006 und 2011) ausführlich vorgestellt und einer Kritik unterzogen. Aussagekräftige Hörbeispiele ergänzen den Text.

Die Klangforschung stärker als bisher in der Ethnologie zu berücksichtigen, würde sich in dreifacher Hinsicht lohnen – thematisch würde die Klangforschung eine Erweiterung möglicher Untersuchungsfelder bedeuten (1), methodisch eine Weiterentwicklung der ethnographischen Empirie (2) und hinsichtlich der Repräsentation der Forschungsergebnisse den Zugewinn eines bislang unterschätzten Mediums (3).

Die Arbeit verschafft somit einen Überblick über ethnographische und sozialwissenschaftliche Ansätze im interdisziplinären Feld der Sound Studies, die es ermöglichen, die Klanglandschaft als eine sozial relevante „akustische Textur“ des Alltags zu lesen und zu verstehen.

HIV Interventions: Beyond the flesh/information distinction (Review essay)

by Mizanur Rahaman

(2012) 21 Science as Culture (forthcoming)

La performativité de la propagande : qui s’agit-il de convaincre ?

by Arthur MARY

Comunicare interculturalǎ şi literaturǎ, Actes du colloque international : « Paradigma discursului ideologic », Universitatea Dunǎrea de Jos, Galaţi, Editura Europlus, mai 2011, pp. 205-210.

Individualität und Improvisation. Theoretische, praktische und ästhetische Zusammenhänge oder Toward a „Theory of Jazztice“ (Draft)

by Alessandro Bertinetto

The paper was presented at the 17ème Colloque  Philosophique Internationale d’Evian (17-­‐23 Juliet 2011)

Building the HIVe: Disrupting Biomedical HIV and AIDS Research with Gay Men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and Transgenders

by Gurmit Singh

Co-authored with Christoper S. Walsh

The Performativity of Sovereignty in a Post-Colonial International Society: Discursive Power and the Construction of Kosovo’s Statehood

by Xavier Mathieu

Paper to be presented at the 2012 ECPR Joint Sessions (Antwerp - April 2012) in the workshop "The Institutions of International Society Revisited: Theory, Practice, Performativity"

This article analyses sovereignty from a performative perspective. Influenced by Geertz and Butler, I show how the... more This article analyses sovereignty from a performative perspective. Influenced by Geertz and Butler, I show how the specific problem encountered by International Relations scholars studying sovereignty – i.e. its lack of empiricity – can be effectively answered by a performative analysis. Indeed, a performative approach can shed a new light on the complex relationship between discourse and reality of sovereignty. In this article, sovereignty is performatively analysed in order to reveal: (i) the underlying normativity of the concept, and its subsequent action as a model for statehood; and (ii) the performative nature of sovereign discourses that appear to only describe what they in fact contribute to create. The ‘reality’ of sovereignty should thus be understood as a discursive reality, which enables the analyst to escape from the reality/discourse dichotomy. By deconstructing the dichotomy, and by merging performativity and post-colonial theory, this article also proposes a new understanding of emancipation. This approach to sovereignty is then applied to the case of Kosovo in order to reveal how sovereignty is has been performed in the case of this newly ‘independent state’.

Performing the Sub-Prime Crisis: Trauma and the Financial Event

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the performative effects of invocations of trauma and traumatic imagery... more The article provides a critical analysis of the performative effects of invocations of trauma and traumatic imagery during the sub-prime crisis. We develop a pragmatic approach to performativity that foregrounds the ambiguity between the importance of performative utterances, on the one hand, and overlapping performativities that produce subjects capable of ‘‘hearing’’ such utterances, on the other. We argue that a performative effect of the traumatic narrative of the sub-prime crisis was to constitute it as ‘‘an event’’ with traumatic characteristics. Financial subjects came to anticipate the object of financial salvation through intervention to save the banks; and such a view worked to curtail the range of political possibilities that were thinkable. Lines of pragmatic resistance are suggested, which turn the logic of trauma toward broadly progressive ends. In this way, the political dimension of performativity is brought forward: if finance is performative, then this only invites the question of how we might perform it differently.

Wearable Technologies: From Performativity to Materiality

by Valérie Lamontagne

The terms performance and performativity have garnered an increased importance in the fields of visual and media arts,... more The terms performance and performativity have garnered an increased importance in the fields of visual and media arts, humanities and the technosciences, signalling an epistemological shift from representational to performative modes of knowledge and experience production. This paper traces the terms performance and performativity — historically and conceptually — within the broad field of performance (linguistics, sociology, anthropology, theatre, dance, music and performance art) to extend their meaning(s) to the fields of technoscience and wearables. It aims to posit that a coupling of wearables technology and performativity is not only (a) crucial to an understanding of the materiality of the wearable object and its social practice, but (b) also offers new grounds for a repositioning of research within the fields of wearables and performance.
Keywords: Wearables, performance, performativity, materiality, human/nonhuman,
technoscience

Authentication: Hot and cool

by Scott Cohen

Cohen, E. and Cohen, S.A. (2012) Authentication: Hot and cool. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(3), 1295-1314. DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2012.03.004

Seeking to shift the discussion of the concept of authenticity in tourism scholarship from the dominant concern with... more Seeking to shift the discussion of the concept of authenticity in tourism scholarship from the dominant concern with tourist experiences to the more sociological problem of the processes of authentication of tourist attractions, we conceptualize two analytically distinct, but practically often intersecting, modes of authentication of attractions, “cool” and “hot”. Through a range of examples, we demonstrate the implications of the two modes for the dynamics of the constitution of tourist attractions, examine their interaction, and illustrate how "cool" and "hot" authentication can be conducive to different types of personal experiences of authenticity. We furthermore explore the crucial question of who is authorized to authenticate tourist attractions, and thereby uncover issues of power and contestation in the politics of authentication.

Keywords: authentication; authenticity; performativity; power; tourist attractions