Elizabeth, et al.
It occurs to me that Wenger's book Communities of Practice,
Cambridge 1998 - would be a good place to look for thinking on
what Wenger call identities of non-participation. Chapters 6 - 9
of that book deal extensively with how people that don't fit but
fit - fit.
Another possible source of interest is Charles N. Darrah's
Learning and Work - An exploration in industrial ethnography -
Garland Publishing, 1996
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth A Wardle [mailto:ewardle@iastate.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 10:43 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Kathie--Workplace enculturation and authority
Kathie,
I've be very interested to see that study, if anyone can remember
who wrote
it or if it has gotten published. The idea that someone could be
IN a COP
but not in it--really not invested in it or engaged with it--or
even
WANTING to be invested or engaged--is a new one to me, although
maybe it
shouldn't be. Now that I think of it, it seems sort of obvious.
But most of
what I've read talks about enculturation as though it is
something that of
course the new worker will want and try to work toward. David
Russell has
briefly said in a 1997 Written Communication article that
sometimes people
find their values, etc. incompatible with their new COP and they
have to
come to terms with that. But this idea that people might not ever
really
come to terms with it is new to me. If you think about it,
though, you can
probably imagine lots of people in jobs they loathe--with codes
and
conventions they detest--but staying at the job because they need
it. In
these cases, do they ever really enculturate? I suppose this
points to the
problem of what, exactly, enculturation is. Or, as one of my
fellow
graduate students asked me, "How will you know when your research
subject
has enculturated?" Lave and Wenger's definition of legitimate
peripheral
participation would probably prove useful here, but I still think
there's
more to be said about the possibility of functioning and living
in a
community of practice with which you don't identify and have no
intention
of identifying.
Anyway, if you or Mike can remember that article, I'd appreciate
it.
Elizabeth
>i reviewed an article for mind, culture, and activity that so
far hasn't
>made it to publication.
>maybe mike remembers.
>it was an ethnographic research on physics students somewhere in
europe
>who were sitting side my side in classes, but, according to the
author,
>engaged in different activity systems with different objects,
rules, etc.
>the overlapping activity systems was persuasively argued.
>
>
>kathie
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>.........Our words misunderstand
us..............................
>.....We are our words, and black and bruised and blue.
>Under our skins, we're
laughing....................................
>.........................Adrienne
Rich..................................
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Katherine_Goff@ceo.cudenver.edu
>http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~katherine_goff/index.html
------------------------------
Elizabeth A. Wardle <ewardle@iastate.edu>
Doctoral Program in Rhetoric & Professional Communication
Iowa State University of Science & Technology
http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/phorum/
www.public.iastate.edu/~ewardle
"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think."
--Adolf Hitler
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