Voice performativity. Lessons from the Lucernaire case
For Hirschman (1983, 1986, 1995), in case of dissatisfaction, exit and loyalty are not the only modes of agency, voice is a third option. But what makes voice performative? We propose to study voicing not as argumentative speech or as sign-making but as performance (Schechner, 1995, 2002). An exploratory qualitative study, in which a voice consisted simultaneously of a hunger strike and the dramatization of this protest in a play, shows a set of performative dynamics. Five lessons regarding voice performativity are proposed, concerning the existence of exit door(s), theatricality and performance, voice parasiting, role of contexts and the openness to conciliation.