For something (usually a text or piece of media) to be performative, is for this content to have an intimate or near-direct relationship with action (the performance).
The simplest example of performative content is the giving of an order. When a general, or officer orders his men to climb out of the trench and attack the enemy there is very little distance between the command (the speech act) and the performance of the action.
In this context it is highly likely that the utterance of the order will result in the soldiers attacking the enemy. From a pragmatic and indeed legal point of view, we can consider the order as the literal cause of the action.
# Philosophy
We have borrowed this concept directly from the philisophical use of the term by J. L Austin. There is an extensive literature on by promises or apologies
# Causality and Agency Performative utterences have causal consequences, but in a different manor to those of classical physical causation.
The causation is more akin to quantum or probabilistic causation in which there is a probabalistic distribution of likely outcomes. However notions of truth, evidence and proof are equally important with regard to agency and disputes.
# Context and Interpretation
The logic of performative contracts is while capable of autonomous interpretation, essentially structured with the requirements of context dependent interpretation in mind.
Concepts such as context are not simply descriptive, they have a mathematical form and causal implications which can be formalised. This formalisation does not opose interpretation by human agents, rather it helps structure this interpretation, aiding to social flow, and incentivising the appropriate work by creating feedback loops and a rich variety of incentivisation structures for such interprative work.
# Ethical Considerations Values are an important aspect of performative structures. Value flows and how they are structured , mapped and combined into a systemic whole in the domain of governance or performative science.
# See also - Performative utterance - Performative Science - DNA of Governance