ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to redefine performativity in a way that the difficulties inherent to the standard performativist sociology can be overcome. It develops an approach to performativity that will better consider its failures. The chapter provides: a new definition of performativity as a conventional assignment of function, a definition of theory as an element that can become an assignment, a set of conditions necessary for performativity. Exploring John Searlian institutional theory is a necessary deviation given John Austin's lack of reflection on the institutional integration of speech acts. The conceptual set constructed by Searle extends to fields as diverse as linguistics, philosophy and social sciences. Searle's conceptualisation proves to be an invaluable tool for placing the theory of the performativity of theoretical statements within a theory of society containing social entities. Searle's conceptual system logically implies, in a manner consistent with external realism, the priority of brute facts over institutional facts.
