Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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This questi<strong>on</strong>ing of my job is c<strong>on</strong>nected to the questi<strong>on</strong> of what is happening during<br />
and due to the deliberati<strong>on</strong>s in the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team. Metaphorically it seems that<br />
together the members of the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team are travelling in a train, planning a<br />
trip of which meanwhile we all know it will not reach its planned destiny. N<strong>on</strong>e of us<br />
leaves at a minor stati<strong>on</strong> nor does any<strong>on</strong>e of us use an emergency brake. To me this is<br />
a very intriguing situati<strong>on</strong> because the process of producing a meaningful advice<br />
evolves in the process of cooperati<strong>on</strong>. Why and how do we establish and maintain our<br />
own, and combined definiti<strong>on</strong> of the situati<strong>on</strong>? What makes us going <strong>on</strong>? Exploring<br />
the dynamics of our cooperati<strong>on</strong> within the c<strong>on</strong>text of the programme of identitymanagement<br />
could clarify why no <strong>on</strong>e is willing or able to use a brake.<br />
Of course my positi<strong>on</strong> as an adviser and the way we cooperate does not occur in<br />
isolati<strong>on</strong>. Things are embedded in former choices regarding the policy of identity-management<br />
in the UAS. Things are embedded in idiosyncrasies of the interacti<strong>on</strong>s of the<br />
different participants in the discussi<strong>on</strong>s. And things are c<strong>on</strong>nected with governmental<br />
policy regarding Higher Educati<strong>on</strong>. In a still broader sense these processes are embedded<br />
in societal discussi<strong>on</strong>s around Higher Educati<strong>on</strong> and the social-ec<strong>on</strong>omic welfare<br />
of the Netherlands. So I w<strong>on</strong>der what was really manageable during the four m<strong>on</strong>ths if<br />
the actual interacti<strong>on</strong>s of the members of the coordinati<strong>on</strong> team are embedded in earlier<br />
and other processes?<br />
4.4 A discursive and defining battle in the background<br />
The menti<strong>on</strong>ed themes implicate a host of subjects to reflect up<strong>on</strong>. In a general sense<br />
subjects like identity-management, advisory positi<strong>on</strong>s and instituti<strong>on</strong>al policy are<br />
themes emerging in processes of interacti<strong>on</strong> am<strong>on</strong>g people and in which attempts are<br />
made to define a comm<strong>on</strong> reality. Defining reality is an <strong>on</strong>going process in which we<br />
are all involved (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). For me to uncover the subtleties of these<br />
processes is intriguing. After all definiti<strong>on</strong> and practice are c<strong>on</strong>nected in what is stated<br />
in the maxim of the self-fulfilling prophecy: “The social process, as involving communicati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
is in a sense resp<strong>on</strong>sible for the appearance of new objects in the field of experience<br />
of the individual organisms implicated in that process. Organic processes or<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>ses in a sense c<strong>on</strong>stitute the objects to which they are resp<strong>on</strong>ses; that is to say,<br />
any given biological organism is in a way resp<strong>on</strong>sible for the existence (in the sense of<br />
the meanings they have for it) of the objects to which it physiologically and chemically<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>ds.” (Mead, 1934: 77). I see defining reality as politics <strong>on</strong> a micro level, with<br />
potentially huge organizati<strong>on</strong>-wide effects if definiti<strong>on</strong>s become dominant or become<br />
social objects as Mead would say. If in organizati<strong>on</strong>al c<strong>on</strong>versati<strong>on</strong>s things are taken<br />
for real, organizati<strong>on</strong>al members tend to act according to its definiti<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
4. Sense making in and of the internal branding project | 97