Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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en Staatssecretaris, 2013). Our Minister and State Secretary suggest far reaching<br />
measures for supervisi<strong>on</strong> of these instituti<strong>on</strong>s. They suggest that future members of<br />
the board should swear an oath <strong>on</strong> being austere in service of a public cause. Moreover,<br />
the Minister and State Secretary will develop rules for organizati<strong>on</strong>s to be used to<br />
evaluate the scope of an instituti<strong>on</strong>. A scope that should fit to human needs. And they<br />
plead for stimulating the presence of c<strong>on</strong>structive dissenting voices. According to<br />
them a quality of a resp<strong>on</strong>sible member of the board has to be to stimulate dissent. By<br />
them dissent is seen as a correcting mechanism against mismanagement.<br />
More Ministerial rules to solve problems which partly evolved because of the many<br />
rules people have to deal with, Paul and I agreed up<strong>on</strong>, would be a paradox. But with<br />
this letter the importance of our discussi<strong>on</strong>s about reflexivity and dissenting opini<strong>on</strong>s<br />
had grown and got a more or less a formal character. These Ministerial suggesti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
will become governmental policy, so we c<strong>on</strong>cluded that we still had a chance to do<br />
things in our own way. Paul already had discussed the letter with his colleagues in the<br />
board and invited me to write my own assignment how to deal with the letter and our<br />
ideas up till now. Given the letter of the Minister and State Secretary my project<br />
became about encouraging dissenting voices.<br />
In my assignment I wrote that I will develop ideas and proposals about stimulating<br />
dissenting voices together with some colleagues in a yet to form think-tank. I proposed<br />
to do it in such a way that the ideas would set out bey<strong>on</strong>d a prototypical managerial<br />
approach of risk management, governance or resilience, and bey<strong>on</strong>d a prototypical<br />
social democratic approach of instituti<strong>on</strong>alizing dissenting voices in all kinds of<br />
regulati<strong>on</strong>s. What would lie bey<strong>on</strong>d is unknown. The board would communicate about<br />
my assignment in a c<strong>on</strong>fined way to offer as much elbow-room as possible.<br />
Then a period of calm around dissent took off. The m<strong>on</strong>ths of May, June, July and<br />
August obviously there was little time to discuss. Examinati<strong>on</strong>s, the preparing for next<br />
academic year and holidays have the upper hand in daily organizati<strong>on</strong>al life.<br />
September – March: reflexive activities<br />
Back from holiday I found an e-mail of Paul Broersen in which he reports about the<br />
discussi<strong>on</strong> in the board about my assignment. There are hesitati<strong>on</strong>s. I can go <strong>on</strong>,<br />
however I will be invited for an in-depth discussi<strong>on</strong> with the board, because they have<br />
different perspectives <strong>on</strong> what is meant with dissenting voices. Especially at a moment<br />
in which the board wants to foster the motto “a deal is a deal” as they experience that<br />
made agreements with deans or directors are not a guarantee that the agreements<br />
will be observed. “Organizing dissenting voices” almost sounds as stimulating organizing<br />
disobedience. At the same time they acknowledge the importance of the subject,<br />
in my view dominantly from the perspective of risk management. Risk management<br />
with the aim to c<strong>on</strong>trol that things develop as agreed and to prevent being c<strong>on</strong>fr<strong>on</strong>ted<br />
with unwanted surprises. I stipulate that in my opini<strong>on</strong> dissenting voices is not about<br />
choosing between right or wr<strong>on</strong>g, but about trying to learn something about the way<br />
6. A case of c<strong>on</strong>sent about dissent | 149