Nurturing a performative self

In this article we reflect on our own journeys towards becoming performative social science researchers with the hope that our experiences might be useful to others who have embarked, or wish to embark, on their own performative journeys. We consider the kinds of researcher-self that might be required to make performative projects happen and suggest that certain qualities are needed of performative social scientists which differ from, and may be in tension with, those qualities required of traditional social science researchers. In the context of a social science that continues to be dominated by the values, attitudes and practices of traditional science, we want to suggest that performative selves need to be nurtured to allow the necessary space and time to develop, mature and be realised.