Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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come would be. The return of his sick leave made that Paul Broersen influenced the<br />
final result still quite str<strong>on</strong>gly, even just before the expirati<strong>on</strong> of the deadline.<br />
I label the interacti<strong>on</strong>s involved in the drafting of the performance agreements as<br />
dynamic and complex. In these interacti<strong>on</strong>s a host of issues were present: the unpredictable<br />
political process <strong>on</strong> a nati<strong>on</strong>al level, the lack of planning, the difference of<br />
opini<strong>on</strong>s and interests, the not yet crystallized effects of a recent reshuffling of faculties<br />
and management of the faculties, and a lack of time. These issues were present in<br />
terms of uncertainty, worries, mutual relati<strong>on</strong>s, feelings of hurry and urgency, and of<br />
course in the arguments used to discuss and decide <strong>on</strong> matters.<br />
From an interventi<strong>on</strong>ist perspective <strong>on</strong> complexity - derived from a Complex Adaptive<br />
System-approach (CAS) – what happens in a system can be labelled as complex if<br />
three or more processes interact and their course is undefined (Zuijderhoudt, 2007).<br />
Within a system things become unpredictable because of the interacti<strong>on</strong>s of at least<br />
three processes and within the system new soluti<strong>on</strong>s or synergy (Zuijderhoudt, 2007)<br />
evolve as a result of the interacti<strong>on</strong>s (self-organizati<strong>on</strong>) or are provoked by interventi<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
A complex resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-perspective <strong>on</strong> complexity implicates that there is no<br />
logical c<strong>on</strong>clusi<strong>on</strong> or soluti<strong>on</strong> for the situati<strong>on</strong>, but in local processes of self-organizati<strong>on</strong><br />
a temporarily order emerges in the interacti<strong>on</strong> of involved people (Groot, 2010b).<br />
From a complex resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-perspective there is not such a thing as a system<br />
which more or less exists independently form the interacti<strong>on</strong>s of the involved people<br />
and which can be provoked to change in a predictable way.<br />
Self-organizati<strong>on</strong> is set out as a process in which “... nobody tells the water that it has<br />
to organize itself this way.” (Homan, 2005: 354). If metaphorically speaking all the<br />
involved people regarding the drafting of the performance agreements were ‘the<br />
water’ then from a complex resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-perspective neither I nor some<strong>on</strong>e<br />
else would have been able to organize the process in a predictable way. From the<br />
perspective of a CAS it is assumed that clever interventi<strong>on</strong>s would have helped to<br />
bring about a new, more efficient order.<br />
From a complexity perspective the drafting of the performance agreements can be<br />
described as a self-organizing process. In the things d<strong>on</strong>e by different people a process<br />
evolved of all the involved which had to wait if the outcomes proved and proof to be<br />
worthwhile. Interdependency and involvement in the interacti<strong>on</strong>s precluded externalist<br />
positi<strong>on</strong>s, meant as being able to manage unilaterally the process or its outcomes.<br />
However, all of the involved were part of what came out.<br />
In the next I label three occurrences as being of special importance in this self-organizing<br />
process. By doing that I realize that my labelling is d<strong>on</strong>e in retrospect and as such<br />
could suggest that somehow it is possible to define unambiguously that some occur-<br />
5. Drafting performance agreements: gestures of a c<strong>on</strong>temporary jester | 133