Audience Agency in Social Performance

Taylor, Anne

doi:10.1177/17499755211029604

Cited by 17 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Such “performances” may have “deeper” meanings, but in order for this potential to be fulfilled, performers must put on a “convincing” performance for the audience and achieve a fusion between performers and audience. This effort by performers and their struggle to convince their audience (Taylor, 2022) play a major part in producing the drama of framed performances—including delineated rituals (compare Brown, 2003; Roth, 1995).…”

Section: Finding Meanings In Conventionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Shoham

2023

American Behavioral Scientist

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Can conventional rituals be meaningful? When and how can conventionality be part of processes of meaning-making rather than a mere obstacle that the cultural analyst must overcome? The article traces the meanings of minor rituals that populate the world of modern industrial societies and seem to have universal appeal. The article applies a Blochian regressive method to ethnological history in order to re-create the gradual process in which conventions appear, are disseminated, popularized, turned into group icons, and ritualized, and only then—and only sometimes—acquire discursive meanings that are often contested. This sequential model reveals the power of conventionality—the lack of contemplation about social conventions—in the processes of popularizing, ritualizing, and iconizing conventional acts. In the terms of Alexander’s meaning-centered performance theory, this conventionality exemplifies a “perfect” or “effortless” fusion of performers and audience. The article thus argues that the meanings of conventional rituals—and perhaps also of conventional performances of more “sacred” rituals—often lie not in symbolic significance or semiotic thickness, but in deep conventionality: meaningfulness encoded in the convention itself.

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Section: Finding Meanings In Conventionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Shoham

2023

American Behavioral Scientist

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“…To that Alexander opposed ‘performances,’ acts that are deliberately framed as performances and that may have ‘deeper’ meanings – if the performers put on a ‘convincing’ performance for the audience. In regular performances, fusion between performers and audience is difficult (Taylor, 2022); but in conventional rituals they engage in clear and scripted practices and there is an effortless fusion .…”

Section: Finding Meanings In Conventionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Our (Civil) Way of Life’: The Folkloric Civil Sphere

Shoham

2022

Cultural Sociology

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Does the civil sphere consist merely of conscious and reflective subjects? Do folkloric habits, customs, and traditions contribute anything to its universalism? This article proposes the term ‘folkloric civil sphere’ to describe a non-intentional dimension of social life and of the civil sphere, composed of conventional rituals – such as those of holidays – that are followed without reflection or debate and that together form a collective ‘way of life,’ but which are nevertheless civil, in that they transcend primordial loyalties and encourage universalistic discourse. As opposed to the neo-Durkheimian focus on the meanings of delineated and emotionally moving performances, the article relies on ethnological history to develop a bottom-up model for grasping the civil meanings of conventional rituals. It suggests recreating the gradual chronological process in which conventions appear, are disseminated, turn into rituals and into group icons, and only then may acquire ambiguous meanings. Hence the meanings of folkloric customs often lie in the perceived universalism of social conventions – what ‘everyone’ does – rather than in their symbolic significance or semiotic thickness. The article proposes a shift in focus in the discussions of civil solidarity: instead of institutional, legal, and discursive processes, it centers on the slow and quiet integration of minority groups – religious and ethnic groups or undocumented immigrants – into the symbolic civil sphere, by means of cultural codes that become embedded in everyday conventions and create, bottom up, a sense of belonging to the universalist civil sphere and its distinct ‘way of life.’

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“…Building on Reed's (2013a) theory of charismatic performance, which envisions resonant interactions between leaders and followers, a more recent conception devises agency to audiences who have to perform fusion for it to take effect (Taylor 2022). In other words, fusion does not 'just happen' as passive resonance but as an audience's expressed "arbitration" of performative success, as Taylor puts it.…”

Section: The Connected and Antagonistic Audience-performers Of Perfor...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Performative polarization: The interactional and cultural drivers of political antagonism

Revers¹

2022

Preprint

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A heightened awareness of political polarization arose from backlash against identity politics in recent years. Rather than examining the deeper mechanics of this process, social science predominantly conceives political polarization in a rather static manner. This article views political polarization as taking shape in the experiences of members of the public, the disputes they engage in, witness and are aware of and moral boundaries that emerge in confrontations. This article introduces a conceptual framework of political conflict of this scope, which is informed by cultural performance theory. Performative polarization is premised upon antagonizing part of the audience in order to win over the other part. It views political conflict as constituted by 1) powerful performers and performances that provide preparatory symbolic work and 2) audiences who arbitrate these dramatic acts in ensuing performances, collectively generate emergent political divisions and implement cues in their everyday interactions.

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Audience Agency in Social Performance

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

Deep Conventionality, or, Tracing the Meanings of Conventional Rituals

‘Our (Civil) Way of Life’: The Folkloric Civil Sphere

Performative polarization: The interactional and cultural drivers of political antagonism

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