Performative Social Science (PSS) is positioned within the current era of cross‐pollination from discipline to discipline. Practitioners from the arts and humanities look to the social sciences for fresh frameworks, whilst social science practitioners explore the arts for potential new tools for enquiry and dissemination. PSS is defined and the similarities and differences between PSS and Arts‐based Research (ABR) are delineated. The history of PSS is then outlined and its development, particularly at the Centre for Qualitative Research at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom, is reviewed. Relational aesthetics is then described in depth as the theoretical basis and grounding of PSS. Relational aesthetics offers a theoretical ground for the complexities of connections across seemingly disparate disciplines, such as the arts and social sciences, and for further exploration of the synergies between both disciplines as well as communities beyond the academy. An example of a large, three‐year nationally funded project, culminating with the production of an award‐winning short biopic, Rufus Stone , is outlined as a prime example of a multimethod approach to social science research which includes tools from the arts in its progress and outputs. The entry concludes with goals and aspirations for PSS in the future.
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