Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: Towards the performative society?

Abstract

This paper 'joins in' and contributes to an emerging stream of ideas and conversations related to 'performativity' in education and social policyuwhich includes, among others, Jill Blackmore, Judyth Sachs, Erica McWilliam, John Elliott, Tricia Broadfoot and Bob Lingard. The paper attempts to look at both the capillary detail and 'the bigger picture' of performativity i,n .[.he public sector. Ideally it should be read in relation to the multitude of 'performative texts' and 'texts of performativity' with which we are continually confronted and which increasingly inform and deform our practice 2. The paper is intended to be both very theoretical and very practical, very abstract and very immediate 3. Let me begin by offering a working definition of performativity. Performativity is a technology, a culture and a mode of regulation, or a system of 'terror' in Lyotard's words, that employs judgements, comparisons and displays as means of control, attrition and change. The performances (of individual subjects or organisations) serve as measures of productivity or output, or displays of 'quality', or 'moments' of promotion (there is a felicititous ambiguity around this word) or inspection. They stand for, encapsulate or represent the worth, quality or value of an individual or organisation within a field of judgement. 'An equation between wealth, efficiency, and truth is thus established' (Lyotard 1984, p. 46). The issue of who controls the field of judgement is crucial. 'Accountability' and 'competition' are the lingua franca of this new discourse of power as Lyotard describes it. A discourse which is the emerging form of legitimation in post-industrial societies for both the production of knowledge and