(Holzman, 1999; Newman, 1996). From this perspective, the performative nature of human relationships is implicated in their doing, and thus, a performative analysis is coherent with the drama of everyday life.
However, there is also increasing movement toward full-blown performance. For example, Johnny Saldaña, an educator and musician, has transformed an aspect of his life story into an hour-long theatrical piece, ‘Second Chair’, during which he plays music as well as speaks lines (Saldaña, 2011). Organizational behavior scholar, Frank Barrett, a former professional jazz musician, has developed a brilliant musical presentation involving audience participation, to illustrate the creation of meaning through collaboration (2012).
Possibly because of the far greater demands involved (e.g. multiple performers, costumes, sets) the deployment of theatrical plays as social inquiry has not been well developed. One of the most salutary inspirations is the work of Gray and Sinding (2002), in which women with metastasized breast cancer both wrote and performed a play inviting others, especially medical personnel, to treat them as whole persons, in contrast to reducing their identities to their diseases. Park (2009) and Norris (2010) have shown how play building can be used as a form of action research. As mentioned, Kip Jones has been at the forefront of this effort to use film as a form of performative inquiry (Hearing and Jones, 2018).
From the Visual to the Visionary
Given the longstanding assumption that photographs provide the unvarnished truth about their subject matter, it is surprising that outside the tradition of visual sociology, so little use has been made of photography in the social sciences. The performative movement lends new life to this medium, but with an understanding of photography as both interpretive and value invested (Allen, 2011; Allen, 2012; Miller, 2016). To sample the innovative use of the medium, Newbury and Hoskins (2010) gave adolescent girls, who were drug users, digital cameras to explore and portray their life conditions and potentials. In their photovoice work on Parkinson's disease, Hermanns et al. (2015) asked their participants to take photos of everyday challenges related to the disease, and then engaged them in dialogue about the photos. Such combining of photography with other forms of representation is increasingly common. Mannay (2010) has combined photos, mapping, and collage production in her study of the experiences of mothers and daughters in a social housing estate. Also see Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis for their pioneering work on portraiture methodology (1997). Brooks (2017) has elaborated on the importance of portraiture in its contributions of aesthetics to performative inquiry.
The development of digital video devices has been a strong invitation to explore filmic representation in the social sciences. The aforementioned works of Wiseman and Livingston opened the door. Kip Jones’ prize-winning film, Rufus Stone (https://vimeo.com/109360805) is testimony to a continuing tradition of excellence. The project was based on narrative materials collected and synthesized by Jones. The aim was also to empower older lesbians and gay men in rural areas through participatory action research. Kenneth Gergen (2018) has turned to video to create what he calls an evocative ethnography of life in the contemporary digital world. Still other scholars have turned directly to You Tube to reach large audiences of viewers. For example, Kitrina Douglas (2012) offers performative videos in anti-psychiatry and feminism in song form. Other efforts can be found in the multi-media journal, Liminalities.
These various endeavors in textual, embodied, and visual performance scarcely exhaust the range of innovative explorations now extant. For example, Blumenfeld-Jones (2008) describes the uses and potentials of dance in performative social science; Glenda Russell and Janis Bohan (1999) have demonstrated the power of choral music in the politics of change. Bartlett (2013) has used cartoons as a form of inquiry. Kuttner et al. (2018) have combined cartoons with rap music as part of their research work. There are also numerous ways in which scholars have combined various forms of representation to achieve their ends. As poetic expression is accompanied by music, for example, the audience's experience may be enriched. The combinations and permutations resulting from integrations across the realm of artistic expression may be limitless.
Achievements and Aspirations
Performative work radically alters the definition of knowledge and research. In doing so, it functions subtly within the academy to gradually expand consciousness of possibilities. And with this shift, the potential contribution of the social sciences to society is substantially increased. Unlike traditional empiricists, typically absorbed by testing abstract hypotheses or observing society from the sidelines, performative inquiry can actively create change. A performative consciousness prompts asking such questions as, ‘Who is this research for?’ ‘Will this research help to make a change for the better?’ It is ultimately a matter of communicating with full potentials to all peoples. In this way, the distance between the academy and the community is diminished and scholars become more fully engaged in the life-worlds about them.
Its capacity for engagement further means that performative work establishes the grounds for dialogue within society. Traditional scientific writing speaks down to society, positioning itself as authoritative and legitimate, over and above the views of the audience. In contrast, when communicating with forms of theater, poetry, film, or photography – all common in society – the scholar is often using culturally familiar forms of communication. Because no claims are made to The Truth, the audience can approach performance work not defensively, but with more openness to what is presented. The conditions are thus established for dialogic interchange. To be sure, performance pursuits may express a particular point of view, often passionately. Yet the very fact that the expression is performative informs the audience that the message is an artifice – crafted for the occasion. One may compare this with traditional empirical work, in which researchers do all they can to suppress their personal investments. While making declarations about the real and the good, performance work simultaneously removes the gloss ‘is true’. Performative pursuits continuously remind us that everything remains open to dialogue.
Much more can be said about the potentials inhering in the performative movement. As discussed, by using the arts to socially construct the world, new and exciting vistas of theory and research are opened up (see, for example, Rolling, 2014). And, because performative inquiry does not require that disciplines be defined in terms of pre-fixed objects (e.g. the mind, society, the family, the community), disciplinary boundaries can be crossed more easily. New research territories can also be created, as evidenced in the way performance researchers take up issues in post-humanism, and the new materialism (Barad, 2007; Bennett, 2010; Braidotti, 2013; Haraway, 2016). Increasingly, academic cultures are invited into mutual exploration with mixed-methods and research innovations encouraged. One may now envision a future in which concerns with the philosophical and aesthetic origins of research inquiry will be replaced with questions of how one's research practices can best serve one's purposes. Resistance to performative work will remain, but critical reflection is also healthy. At this point in time, however, the vistas of possibility are irresistibly inviting.
References
Allen, L. (2011). ‘Picture this’: Using photo-methods in research on sexualities and schooling. Qualitative Research, 11, 487–504.
Allen, Q. (2012). Photographs and stories: Ethics, benefits and dilemmas of using participant photography with Black middle-class male youth. Qualitative Research, 12, 443–458.
Anita Woodley Productions. (October 27, 2015). Anita Woodley's Mama Living with BreastCancer Mini Documentary [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUDnwFjYJcU
Appignanesi, J. (Director) and Jones, K. (Author). (2011). Rufus Stone [Film]. London: Parkville Pictures & Bournemouth: Bournemouth University. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/109360805
