Mike wrote:
>Jay-
> When reading dense messages like yours and Keith's on the topic
>of emergence, aside from being overwhelmed and scrambling to find toeholds
>before I fall off the mountain altogether, I constantly find myself
>wishing for graspable concrete examples of the consequences of what is
>being said.
I completely agree with Mike's insistence that we explore the empirical
implications of theoretical work. Although XMCA has been focusing on my
theoretical work, in fact, my studies of emergence are motivated by my
empirical studies of collaborating groups, so I have no shortage of
concrete examples. I have studied particularly improvisational small-group
encounters: children's play, jazz, and Chicago improv theater. When a
collaborating group interacts improvisationally, the outcome of the
interaction is unpredictable, contingent, and emergent; and the
interactional frame that emerges has downward causal influence over the
participants. In my empirical publications, I demonstrate this dialectic
by using transcripts of collaboratively improvised dialogues.
So for me, the primarily implications of emergence theory are in studies of
group collaboration, a central concern of the sociocultural tradition. I
draw on theories of emergence in my book about children's play dialogues
(1997, "Pretend play as improvisation," Erlbaum), in a forthcoming book on
Chicago improv theater ("Improvised dialogues: Emergence and creativity in
conversation," in press, Greenwood), and in some in-preparation articles on
collaboration in learning contexts. These studies are deeply empirical, in
a conversation-analytic/discourse-analytic tradition. My analyses of
improv theater dialogues, in particular, demonstrate how an emergentist
approach can be applied to studies of discourse processes in group
collaboration.
R. Keith Sawyer
http://www.keithsawyer.com/
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
Washington University
Campus Box 1183
St. Louis, MO 63130
314-935-8724
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