Notes from the Conference floor….

We have just finished our seventh biennial qualitative conference here at Bournemouth which included, for the second time, a section on Performative Social Science.  Highlights included the magical performance of our keynote, Johnny Saldana, and our special guests, Ken and Mary Gergen, who informally conversed with an audience about how their own relationship ‘relates’ to their academic work. 

Other highlights included a Gallery Space with digital presentations on individual pcs, takes on the ‘poster presentation’ in graphic format and a display of hand carved wooden bowls that represented research and craft as similar endeavours of the creative mind. 

Special surprises at lunchtimes included a group of mimes performing the tennis match scene from the film “Blow-up” amidst stunned delegates eating their lunches and, on the final day, a flashmob of delegates taking frozen poses a la Grand Central Station flashmob. 

The theme of the conference was “Dream” and conference delegates were encouraged to video record their qualitative dreams for viewing a few hours later on a wide screen TV set up in the refreshment area .  Dream badges were distributed to all who recorded their thoughts.  We should be uploading a final edit of this to the net in due course, so look out for it.

Twenty-one delegates presented sessions within the performative thread, with subject matter coming from a wide variety of disciplines.  This was the first year that the over-all conference extended its brief beyond health and social care to disciplines such as Education, Organisational Studies, and Tourism.  The conference was well attended by delegates from as far away as Japan and South Africa.  An American accent was often heard as well so the economy cannot be that bad!  These 'performative types', along with astounding and dismaying other delegates, also had a very positive influence on them.  Many remarked how they planned to take these ‘performative’ lessons back to their own disciplines and incorporate them into their presentations in future.

Performative Social Science certainly made itself widely known during this opportunity!