Try taking a look at Elain Chin, "Redefining "Context" in Research on
Writing, in WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, V. 11 #4, pp. 445-482. She illustrates
that graduate students literacy practices are (in part) contingent upon
spatial relations in their department. She draws on Steve Witte's article
that you might know or want to know: Context, text, and intertext: towards
a constructivist semiotic of writing. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, 9, 237-308.
Best of luck!
Scott Oates
>
>I found Eva's comments interesting about texts functioning as a kind of
>material setting in groups such as this--a kind of unstable structure.
>
>In my dissertation work I am hoping to relate the ongoing construction of
>settings with community construction in secondary classrooms. I'm
>wondering if anyone has developed a connection between leading activity
>and something like "leading settings" or "leading objects"?
>
>I haven't heard much discussion yet on physical spaces themselves. Why
>do spaces, and their divisions and distributions, often get written out of
>accounts of activity? In classroom studies in particular it often
>seems that spaces are assumed to be common across
>settings, and if mentioned, are generally noted as a supporting cast for
>talk and other aspects of activity.
>
>Would really be interested in hearing about any related work.
>
>Kevin Leander
>
>
Scott Oates
3700 LNCO
University Writing Program
University of Utah 84112
801-581-7090