Theories in practices. Socio-technical agencements, performativity and economization between artistic practices and social research

Social research has often seen the artistic practices as a symptom of social phenomena and not as an object of study in itself. With the development of new paradigms of social action, as the idea of socio-technical agencements, performativity and economization, we are forming a search field with converging research perspectives between the two disciplines. Artistic practices and social research withdraw from the idea of individual agency, linked to the intentionality of the subject, turning to a diffused agency with limited rationality. From the idea of social performance of a stable rational identity, placed in the backstage of interaction, we switch to an idea of performativity of the theory and of the artwork. Economic theories are a powerful engine of social production, which allow to move from the study of the economy to the study of economization. Some contemporary artists are experimenting forms of economic behavior not related only with the idea of individual utility, but coming from hybrid forms, containing also the idea of shared responsibility.