The notion of performance and its epistemological potential in contemporary social scientific work

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.157

María Celeste Bianciotti
elestebianciotti@yahoo.com.ar
CIECS-CONICET-UNC, Argentina

Mariana Jesús Ortecho
mensajedeletras@hotmail.com
CIECS-CONICET-UNC, Argentina

Abstract:

This paper accounts for the emergence and circulation of the notion of performance in social and human sciences, especially within the framework of ritual and performance anthropology, and its potential implications in the modes of social knowledge production. Firstly, the conceptualization of this notion is examined as an empirical object and a category of analysis, indicating how this has helped to inquire about socio-cultural processes by considering iconic, bodily, volitional and affective issues (generally overlooked within the framework of what we have called «modern science»). Secondly, it delves into those transformations that might derive from the use of this notion in current scientific production. Finally, it notes that many of those principles (linked to the positivist matrix), which are considered to be overcome nowadays, continue to operate in those gnoseological processes through the —almost exclusive— use of symbolic representation systems.

Keywords: Performance, theoretical-methodological notion, epistemic potential, social research.