Rhetoric of success and failure

obligatory courses

The bulk of the lectures is in English language which renders elementary knowledge of English to be an essential condition for participation.

Remote learning

The class provides an introduction to what may be loosely called critical studies of success and failure. There will be less emphasis on coping with failure and managing crises. And more on the rhetoric that accompanies the way of talking about success and failure. How the perception of failure and the norms of success are constructed and externalized in our society? How these perceptions rely on processes such as individualization, genderalization, narrativization, calculation, and the strengthening of the logic of capitalism and neoliberalism.

The class will discuss topics such as:

- failure as a social phenomenon

- ways of talking about failures,

- rules of what constitutes failure

- constructing institutions that present various experiences of failure in a non-taboo manner (fuck-up nights, theater of failure)

- criticism of the standards of success

- alternative forms of success and failure.

The subject provides an introduction to what may be loosely called critical studies of success and failure.

Failure is one of the most complex and richest phenomena in the contemporary society. The possible angles of approach are multifaceted and situated at the intersection of various disciplines. Failure may turn out to be a success, but it may also turn out to be an ultimate experience. It may mobilize and push forward, but it may also paralyze the economic activities of actors and organizations, or place these in a strange state of political and institutional inertia. Failure may persist, but it may also disappear overnight, as if it never happened. For social actors, there is nothing set and predictable about failure. To the same extent as there is nothing certain about processes such as success, social capital, power, entrepreneurship and the like. This obvious appeal of failure makes its study a recurrent enterprise in social sciences.

During the class, less emphasis will be placed on coping with failure and crisis management. But rather on the rhetoric that accompanies the way people talk about success and failure. How the perception of failure and the norms for success are constructed and externalized in our society? How these perceptions rely on processes such as narativization, individualization, genderalization, economization, calculation, and the strengthening of the logic of capitalism and neoliberalism?

The class conveys that thinking about success and failure as rhetoric does not mean that they are only discursive phenomena. Success and failure do not just happen. But they are also imagined, presented in one way or another, rendered temporary, contested and, to some extent, even anticipated.

Topics like:

- failure as a social phenomenon

- ways of talking about failures

- rules of what constitutes failure

- constructing institutions that present various experiences of failure in a non-taboo manner (fuck-up nights, theater of failure)

- criticism of the standards of success

- alternative forms of success and failure

Failure: rhetoric and preoccupation

Albert O. Hirschman. 1991. The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. Belknap Press

Albert O. Hirschman. 1975. “Policymaking and policy analysis in Latin America - A return journey.” Policy Sciences 6: 385–402

Ilene Grabel. 2018. When Things Don't Fall Apart

Global Financial Governance and Developmental Finance in an Age of Productive Incoherence. MIT Press

Failure as a social phenomenon of narativization and calculation

Liisa Kurunmäki oraz Peter Miller. 2013. “Calculating failure: The making of a calculative infrastructure for forgiving and forecasting failure.” Business History 55 (online)

Kai Oppermann oraz Alexander Spencer. 2016. “Telling stories of failure: narrative constructions of foreign policy fiascos”

Journal of European Public Policy 23 (online)

Jacqueline Best. 2016. “When crises are failures: Contested metrics in international finance and development,” International Political Sociology 10: 39-55

Failure as a result of imagination, expectations and self-evaluation

Andrew Lakoff. 2017. Unprepared Global Health in a Time of Emergency. University of California Press

Susie Scott. 2020. “Social nothingness: A phenomenological investigation” European Journal of Social Theory (online)

Arjun Appadurai oraz Neta Alexander. 2019. Failure. Polity

Failure as an alternative, criticism of the standards of success

Jack Halberstam. 2011. Queer Art of Failure. Duke University Press

Ann Cooper Albright. 2018. How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World. Oxford University Press

Janet O’Shea. 2018. Risk, Failure, Play What Dance Reveals about Martial Arts Training Oxford University Press.

participation in the discussion (40%)

an interview with one person regarding personal or organizational experience of failure (30%)

presentation and interpretation of interview conclusions on the basis of three readings discussed during the class (30%)

Grade credit