These ideas are resonating with how I'm framing design performance. Led by an observation that while we (designers) will contrive situations, we're more than often very conscious of the fact that any whiff of contrivance will put our participants/colleagues/co-designers off.
The challenge of participatory approaches, imho, can be well described using the terms Goffman builds with in this chapter: sincerity vs cynicism, reality & contrivance, convincing others & conviction in one's role, command of an idiom.
Contemporary designers, particularly those working in experience led pursuits, play a more epistemic role than they used to. They still make things, but more and more these artifacts are created to facilitate understanding & construct knowledge. To do this they will contrive design situations, with an idiomatic command of actions and artifacts that render these contrivances convincing.
