THE INVENTION OF PERFORMANCE

Nina Verheyen, born in 1975, is a historian at the University of Cologne. She previously worked at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. In addition to articles for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" and the "Merkur", she has published the book "Diskussionslust. A Cultural History of the ‚Better Argument‘ in West Germany" (2010). She lives in Cologne and Berlin.

Moderation Robert Misik, Author and journalist

Our society is a meritocracy. But what do we mean when we talk about "performance"? How did performance become a supposedly objective, individual parameter and how have social relationships and feelings changed as a result? Why do people define themselves by their performance - or by what they and others think it is?
Nina Verheyen vividly and illuminatingly describes how the understanding of performance has changed and tells the story of an idea that characterises all of our lives. She argues for a historically informed and at the same time new, more social definition of performance, which can be used to argue convincingly against the pressure to optimise, market mechanisms and social inequality.

Nina Verheyen
The invention of performance
Hanser Berlin, 2018
23,70 €; also as ebook
Photo: ©Götz Schleser