Carl, Mitch et.al. on the Lexington-Bristol 'performativity axis':
My facetious remark made earlier was semi-serious.
Take my own field - rural Africa. Considerable work has been done on
'performance' in African studies and the visual arts, building on the
work of people like Jonathan Fabian on the use of theater (Fabian, J.
1990. Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations Through Proverbial
Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire. Madison. University of Wisconsin
Press. ). Similarly over in ecological anthropology, Paul Richards has
used the 'performance' metaphor to describe processes of reflexive
decisionmaking in agricultural systems (Richards, P. 1993. "Cultivation:
Knowledge or Performance?" In An Anthropologial Critique of Development:
the Growth of Ignorance, ed. M Hobart. Pp 61-78 In. London: Routledge.).
The latter focusses on the material aspects of intentional practices in
farming systems. I even wrote something about this, contra Richards
(Batterbury, S.P.J. 1996 "Planners or Performers? Reflections on
Indigenous Dryland Farming in Northern Burkina Faso." Agriculture & Human
Values 13 (3): 12-22.), and there is a debate going on 'performance' and
'intentionalty' in these environments, using actor-oriented sociological
terminology that comes from Norman Long (Simpson, B.M. 1999. The Roots of
Change: Human behaviour and agricultural evolution in Mali. London:
Intermediate Technology Publications.). All of this is designed to find
ways to explain human behaviour in conditions where the social and
natural worlds are (self-evidently) strong influences on what people do,
and on how they make a living. In particular, it shows how farming can
take on certain attributes shared with artistic expression - and these
findings are of particular interest to the state and development
projects, who have overlooked and misunderstood these expressive elements
in their planned initiatives in rural Africa.
However, in what sense is 'performativity' used here, please? And what is
embodiment? From comments received, I am certainly certainly not alone in
being behind the theoretical times.
Simon
>Subject: performativity and embodiment
>Sent: 15/8/19 7:53 am
>Received: 12/8/99 8:07 am
>From: Carl Thor Dahlman, [log in to unmask]
>To: critgeog, [log in to unmask]
>
>Per Amanda's request, I'd like to mention a few efforts relating
>performativity and geography for those interested.
>
>Mitch Rose and I organized a session at last year's AAG on performativity
>and space which offered some interesting intersections and readings on the
>topic. Julie Graham, Heidi Nast, John Paul Jones, Mitch and I gave papers
>-- I don't know if we've yet seen any of these in print. I think they all
>represent approaches to embodiment, performativity, and theories of
>identity in their work. Their work separately represents some interesting
>takes on these issues in a variety of sub-fields.
>
>Also, I'd offer my observation that there seems to be a difference in the
>way performativity is considered between folks in the states (more
>Althusser and Austin via Butler), and folks I've spoken with in the UK
>(particularly Bristol) which appears to take a different, and highly
>productive, approach. Maybe someone could comment on this observation.
>
>In terms of refugees, home, and embodiment, I think Liisa Malkki (anthrop.)
>is on target without describing it as such.
>
>Hope this is of some use--Carl
>
>(ok, Simon, it's safe to read again)
>
>
>Carl Thor Dahlman
>
>1457 Patterson Office Tower
>Department of Geography
>University of Kentucky
>Lexington, KY 40506-0027
>USA
>http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Geography/
>voice: (606) 257-8237
>fax: (606) 323-1969
-----------------------------
Dr. Simon Batterbury
>From Sept. 1 1999:--
Lecturer in Development Studies
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics (LSE)
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
fax (44 0) 20-7955-6844,
telephone (+44 0)20-7955-7425
http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/destin/
email: [log in to unmask]
Currently:--
Dept. of Geography & Earth Sciences
Brunel University
Uxbridge Middx. UB8 3PH, UK
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo
tel +1895 274000 fax +1895 203217
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