Action Research and Performativity: How Sociology Shaped a Farmers' Movement in The Netherlands

• Published in: Sociologia ruralis Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 17 - 34
• Main Author: Daniel, François-Joseph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2011; Blackwell; Wiley
• Subjects: Action Research; Action theory; Case studies; Economic models; Economic sociology; Economic theory; Economics; Farmers; Fieldwork; Humanities and Social Sciences; Netherlands; Peasant movements; Performativity; Political science; Political sociology; Researcher Subject Relations; Rural and urban sociology; Rural sociology; Social action; Social influence; Social Movements; Social movements. Revolutions; Social reality; Sociologists; Sociology; Utterances; Netherlands; Action; Social movement; Farmer; Sociology
• ISSN: 0038-0199; 1467-9523
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2010.00525.x

This article elaborates on the interactions at play between sociologists and social actors during an action research process. It particularly seeks to highlight the impact that scholars have while undertaking field research and interacting with the objects of their research; the processes through which academic ideas spread, and become a part of social reality. This article argues that this academic influence can be best understood through the concept of performativity. During an action research process scientific utterances not only have an analytical value but also shape the world, as they can bring into existence what they utter. To illustrate this phenomenon, this article presents a case study that highlights the impact of sociologists on a farmers' movement in The Netherlands, an impact that was facilitated by a performative process. It demonstrates that the process of performing is an entanglement of events, a tumult of successive situations and circumstances through which researchers' views are gradually diffused among the population, shape people's minds and transform their institutions. These findings reflect those of economic sociologists, who also analysed how economic models and theories are transferred into social arrangements through a process of performativity.