From linguistic performativity to social performance

Abstract

Performativity has emerged as one of the most important theoretical approaches of recent times, with an extraordinarily varied take-up. The chapter begins with a brief introduction to the work of J. L. Austin since his How to Do Things with Words is the starting point for many contemporary discussions of performativity in social and political thought. This is followed by an equally brief examination of the work of Jacques Derrida and Pierre Bourdieu and the division that begins to emerge in theories of performativity between those conceptualising it as a linguistic phenomenon and those defining it as a social practice. The chapter then turns to the universal – or formal – pragmatics of Jürgen Habermas to demonstrate the place of performativity in the development of his theory of communicative action. This is followed by an examination of what is perhaps the most influential current account of performativity: Judith Butler's argument that gender is performative (though space is also given to her linguistic account of performativity too). The final section examines the controversial account of symbolic action as social performance developed by Jeffery Alexander et al. The chapter ends with a brief conclusion indicating what a political and social theory of performativity needs to be able to address.