ABSTRACT

'Performance' has become one of the key terms for the new century. But what do we mean by 'performance'? In today's world it can refer to experimental art; productivity in the workplace; and the functionality of technological systems. Do these disparate fields bear any relation to each other?
In Perform or Else Jon McKenzie asserts that there is a relationship cultural, organisational, and technological performance. In this theoretical tour de force McKenzie demonstrates that all three paradigms operate together to create powerful and contradictory pressures to 'perform...or else'. This is an urgent and important intervention in contemporary critical thinking. It will profoundly shape our understanding of twenty-first century structures of power and knowledge.

chapter |2 pages

INTRODUCTION

chapter 0|24 pages

CHALLENGES

part |2 pages

PART I: PERFORMANCE PARADIGMS

part |2 pages

PART II: THE AGE OF GLOBAL PERFORMANCE

chapter 4|16 pages

CHALLENGER LECTURE MACHINE

part |2 pages

PART III. PERFUMANCE

chapter 8|16 pages

THE CATACHRISTENING OF HMS CHALLENGER

chapter 9|22 pages

PROFESSOR RUTHERFORD AND GAY SCI FI

chapter 10|27 pages

JANE CHALLENGER, DISASTRONAUT