Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon

The double meaning of ‘rumbling on’ indicates what this thesis is about. It means that
something ceaselessly carries on and apparently is unstoppable. ‘<strong>Rumbling</strong> on’ also
means that things are fussed around or doctored with. ‘Performativity’ is the thing
that rumbles on and is rumbled on. Generally speaking ‘performativity’ refers to a way
of formulating and implementing policy in which efficiency is leading and substance
hardly matters. Performativity is also known as New Public Management; a management-philosophy
which champions and advances efficiency within organizations by
means of budgetary and performance-oriented control.
Research into policymaking from the position of the observing participant
I did research into the way policy evolved in the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) I
work for. At the time of the research I worked as an adviser to the Executive Board. I
was curious about which and how policy evolved. My curiosity was nourished by my
paradoxical experience - in different positions within the UAS - that apparently ‘we’
never do the right things, yet ‘we’ are highly ranked in national rankings and still ‘we’
often accomplish something else as intended. I became curious about what really
happens, about how and which things evolve in daily practice.
The policymaking I did research into was about a project on identity-management,
about the drawing up of performance agreements imposed by the Ministry of Education
and about an explorative discussion about the organization of constructive dissent.
Constructive dissent is a concept that also came up from the Ministry of Education.
In this policymaking I was intensively involved as programme, project and discussion
leader. Therefore my research is done from the position of observing participant. This
kind of research has its own methodological background and explanation. In a broad
sense this kind of research can be labelled as social constructionist, reflexive, narrative,
auto-ethnographic or insider research. My research is done from a complex responsive
process-perspective (Stacey, Griffin, Shaw), research which can be qualified as insider
research. This specific perspective has been developed at the University of Hertfordshire
(UK). In 2010 this kind of research has been introduced in the PhD school of
Management of the Open University in Heerlen (NL).
Radically reflexive research: theoretical orientations – criteria of scientificality –
ethical responsibility
The specific methodological background demands other than the usual criteria to be
able to speak of a scientific approach. Validity and generalizability are normally demanded,
however for this kind of research different criteria are appropriate. In chapters
1 and 2 I elaborate extensively on the demands for this kind of research in order to
gain a certificate of scientificality.
To comprehend these different criteria it must be clarified that research from a complex
responsive process-perspective opts for a different idea about the status of reality
(ontology) and the way this reality is understood (epistemology). Shortly, from this
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