Since the publication of Austin’s (1962) canonical How To Do Things With Words, terms such as ‘performative’, ‘performativity’, and ‘performation’ have come to be some of the most pervasive concepts within the social sciences. This has in large part been due to the work of writers such as Judith Butler (e.g. 1997) in feminist and cultural theory and Michel Callon (1998a) from science and technology studies (STS) (du Gay, 2010). And while it is clear that these terms have found varying uses in a number of instances (Muniesa, 2014), it is
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specifically the notion of performativity as introduced by Callon which is of interest in the context of the present study.
As Callon’s thesis on the performativity of economics was given empirical backing primarily by Donald MacKenzie’s work on financial markets (e.g. MacKenzie, 2003; 2006), the idea came to be an important foundation for STS when walking into economic sociology and forming what is known as the “new new economic sociology” (Mcfall, 2009; Mcfall & Ossandón, 2014). The proliferation of the performativity thesis is given its most clear expression in the derived scholarly agenda concerning the relationship between economics and market construction named the “performativity programme” (Çalışkan & Callon, 2010; see also for example Callon, Millo, & Muniesa, 2008; MacKenzie, Muniesa, & Siu, 2007a; Kjellberg & Helgesson, 2006).
In order to understand Callon’s idea of performativity and thus provide a basis for the forthcoming discussion, the terminology here has to be clarified. In his now- classic introduction to The Laws of the Markets, ‘The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics’ (Callon, 1998a), Callon’s more general idea of what is here called performativity was applied in order to change the way the relationship between economics and markets is conceived of. It was argued that “…economics, in the broad sense of the term, performs, shapes and formats the economy, rather than observing how it functions” (Callon, 1998b, p. 2). Other names for related notions then followed, and the use of terminology within the field has not been entirely consistent. Since the introduction of the basic idea, the use of the concepts “performation” (Callon, 1998b) and “co-performation” (e.g. Callon, 2007b) have been suggested as part of a mission to introduce terms which reflect and specify what is implied in this particular notion of performativity. These various expressions will in the following be used in order to structure a brief elaboration of the notion of performativity.
Working within speech act theory and developing Wittgenstein’s observation that words are deeds, Austin (1962) originally introduced the notion of performatives as a contrast to constatives as part of a critique of the idea that the workings of language are essentially representative. Whereas constatives are sayings involved in the making of a statement or provision of a description (e.g. ‘the cat is on the mat’), performatives are speech acts that are actions - such as making a promise or
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apologizing (e.g. ‘I promise to come by on Saturday’). Callon’s change from performativity to performation and co-performation has to a great extent been made in an effort to specify “How to get rid of Austin without losing him” (Callon, 2004). The idea is here to avoid conceiving of performativity in the original way as presented by Austin, i.e. the idea that performativity is a property of statements. Rather, performation “…is an action: it is performativity as an activity or a material operation” (MacKenzie, Muniesa, & Siu, 2007b, p. 15). This difference in conception can to a great extent be made clear by considering it in light of the way Callon couples it with the notion of the agencement (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987), or what is called the socio-technical agencement (STA) (e.g. Callon, 2005; 2007a; 2008). A STA is a methodological term designed to respect and render visible the multitude of forces potentially influencing economic processes and the construction of markets (Çalışkan & Callon, 2010). The socio- technical agencement denotes an arrangement or assemblage of heterogeneous elements carefully adjusted to one another and which has the capacity to act in certain ways in effect of its configuration. And by pointing to the way markets are made without ascribing primacy or function to any one form of constituent element, the notion of the STA embodies the pragmaticist approach.
The idea of Nord Pool being a market STA helps stress that the Nordic wholesale electricity market is an outcome, and it demands that the inputs which exist in the context of market construction are followed. As was also pointed out when discussing the rules and techniques of the present study, this specific idea is a starting point for helping inquiry along. However, for reasons unknown, the idea that phenomena exist as part and outcome of such heterogeneous assemblages is often treated as a sort of finding or conclusion in its own right (see for example Bøhling, 2015). When considered in light of the idea of the STA, economics and economic processes become part and parcel of the same thing. Economics no longer represents an independent reality, but inevitably helps constitute its object:
This means that there is nothing left outside of agencements: there is no need for further explanation, because the construction of its meaning is part of an agencement. A socio-technical agencement includes the statement(s) pointing to it, and it is because the former includes the latter that the agencement acts in line with the statement…
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Seen in this way, it becomes evident that representations such as economics are inescapably performative in a general sense. Performativity in Callon’s understanding signifies a general point about the inseparability of representations and their objects as part of a STA. This becomes clear from statements such as the one made about the Black-Scholes formula studied by Donald MacKenzie. In this context it is stressed that “The formula that is born performative, and remains so, seems to be constative when the world (finally) acts according to it” (Callon, 2007b, p. 321). When introduced into the discussion of the anthropology applied in the wider social sciences in general and economic sociology in particular, the notion of the STA helps make clear Callon’s original critique of previous conceptions of the central idea of the economic agent. Here the economic agent is distinguished from the a priori rational egoist assumed by, for example, neoclassical economics. It is also stressed that the economic agent is not an actor whose actions are structurally determined by, or embedded in, the wider workings of society as suggested by much of sociology. Rather, economic man exists to the extent that s/he is made to exist:
Yes, homo economicus really does exist. Of course, he exists in the form of many species and his lineage is multiple and ramified. But if he exists he is obviously not [to] be found in a natural state – this expression has little meaning. He is formatted, framed and equipped with prostheses which help him in his calculations and which are, for the most part, produced by economics
[Italics in original] (Callon, 1998b, p. 51) In light of the idea of the STA, it becomes clear what is meant with the catch phrase that performativity implies an idea of “truth as success” (Callon, 2007b, p. 316). Instead of the idea of truth as a form of correspondence between a representation and its object caused by some inherent feature of the model, a model becomes true. Or using Callon’s words, “…it is preferable to say that the world it supposes has become actual” (Callon, 2007b, p. 320). It should here be stressed that it is on the topic of representation that one can find a noteworthy difference between Callon’s original statement and central work from within the performativity programme. Apart from stressing that it partakes in the process, Callon never ascribed specific roles to economics in the performation of markets. But other widely influential works within the performativity programme did just
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that (e.g. MacKenzie, 2006). Making this distinction will prove to be of importance due to how the present thesis seeks not only to demonstrate how control systems engineering has been central to the design and maintenance of Nord Pool. The ambition is also to widen the understanding of the role of economics in the making of markets. In other words, it is the issues around the role and use of expertise in the actualization of that specific form of knowledge which is of interest. But before elaborating on this particular point, it is worth taking a step back and further considering the performativity thesis. When applying the pragmatic maxim in considering the idea that economic markets are shaped, performed, and formatted by economics, it immediately becomes a priority to explicate what is concretely entailed in the term ‘economics’.