ABSTRACT
Performativity, in this account of the concept, is drawn from J. F. Lyotard's 1984 work The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. For Lyotard, performativity is both a culture and technology, in which regulation serves to drive performance against generalised standards. Lyotard's performativity has been hugely popularised in the literature of educational sociology, most notably in the UK in the work of Stephen Ball. Placed in a national context, performativity in the UK has extended to a range of public services where audit technologies are now commonly used to regulate and valorise forms of institutional processes and outcomes. In the Lyotardian meaning of the concept, the 'reach' of performativity is not simply restricted to the technologies of schooling but, as Lyotard argues, it is a culture. In this regard, the power of performativity lies in its ability to both affect and shape personal and collective behaviour.
