Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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an elaborated versi<strong>on</strong> of this theory it is verified that if people are not coerced to show<br />
a certain attitude and are aware of what they are doing, they tend to change their<br />
behaviour towards the exhibited attitude, even if this attitude is not their own in the<br />
beginning of the process (Cooper, 2007).<br />
I assume that for the members of the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team working together for a l<strong>on</strong>g<br />
time and discussing a subject during a period of four m<strong>on</strong>ths the avoidance of cognitive<br />
diss<strong>on</strong>ance can help to understand what happened. I think taking a l<strong>on</strong>g period of<br />
time implies a process of taking little steps towards each other’s opini<strong>on</strong>s, and steps<br />
taken are hard to be und<strong>on</strong>e. The discomfort felt by any<strong>on</strong>e to recall a given commitment<br />
leads to commitment with c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s and recommendati<strong>on</strong>s in which different<br />
but not rec<strong>on</strong>ciled perspectives can be found. Unknowingly we as the members of the<br />
coordinati<strong>on</strong> team built ‘a trap’ by agreeing piecemeal to each other’s perspectives.<br />
Evaluati<strong>on</strong><br />
Apart from physical force the human body appears to have other effective ways which<br />
underpin agreement. The body itself is powerful in unc<strong>on</strong>sciously reducing differences,<br />
as underpinned by neurocognitive findings (Koch, 2004; Lamme, 2010; Ramachandran,<br />
2005). C<strong>on</strong>cerning the c<strong>on</strong>tent of the c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s this implies that it appears that an<br />
equalisati<strong>on</strong> of differences is taking place which is amplified in time through a process<br />
of irreversible commitment. Although I could c<strong>on</strong>clude that my perspective <strong>on</strong> openness,<br />
fed by the c<strong>on</strong>cept of co-creativity and wisdom of the crowd, has got dominance,<br />
this c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong> is c<strong>on</strong>tradicted by the rather reifying and thus incompatible recommendati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team makes. C<strong>on</strong>tagi<strong>on</strong> and the avoidance of cognitive<br />
diss<strong>on</strong>ance help to clarify how prefab webs (Homan, 2001) or repetitive patterns<br />
aspects of relating (Shaw, 2002) are produced and preserved. These social psychological<br />
bodily ‘provisi<strong>on</strong>s’ embedded in the autopilot characteristics of the modern strategic<br />
mental make-up made that no member of the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team has been determining<br />
unilaterally the c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s and recommendati<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
4.6 A strategy of a ventriloquist?<br />
I wrote that in general my job implies that I prepare c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong>s which have to be<br />
drawn by the members of the executive board. My advices should have noticeable<br />
impact <strong>on</strong> policy and <strong>on</strong> what happens next. In a bit of a malevolent perspective <strong>on</strong> my<br />
work this preparing could be interpreted as a way of framing the mind of my superiors.<br />
In practice this framing would imply that the work d<strong>on</strong>e together with the members<br />
of the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team would be a manipulative prefabricati<strong>on</strong> of the way the<br />
members of the executive board should look at the policy of the UAS. Given the stipulated<br />
<strong>on</strong>going battle between a social systems-change discourse and a co-creative<br />
discourse within the UAS, my advice is somewhere located <strong>on</strong> that battlefield. Framing<br />
then can be seen as a part of the weap<strong>on</strong>ry to make a stroke.<br />
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