Premium
Performance and Rehearsal: Social Order and Organizational Life *
Author(s) -
Mangham Iain L.,
Overington Michael A.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1982.5.2.205
Subject(s) - rehearsing , order (exchange) , alternation (linguistics) , psychology , sociology , social order , social psychology , epistemology , organizational change , cognitive psychology , public relations , political science , business , linguistics , politics , philosophy , visual arts , art , finance , law
Two perspectives on social order have been influential among interactionists—negotiated order and the dramaturgical. We explore the resources offered by the latter when the theater is taken more seriously as a source of theoretic invention. In particular we survey some of the more important elements in theatrical performance and rehearsal. The major part of the paper then takes social order as an alternation between performing and rehearsing in which social actors may be treated as “possessed” by their roles and the limits on performance located. We illustrate the analytic possibilities of this view in some organizational conversations.