Dear All,
I would like to draw your attention to a recent book, which appears to
be relevant to a number of XMCA discussions and can be of interest to
many XMCA'ers. The book, written by Clay Spinuzzi, is entitled "Tracing
genres through organisations: A sociocultural approach to information
design" (The MIT Press, 2003).
This book suggests a new methodology -- "genre tracing" -- based on
genre theory (Bakhtin) and activity theory (Leontiev, Engeström, Cole,
etc). This approach places technology in the context of unofficial
"genres", which evolve through accumulating ephemeral innovations
emerging in everyday work. Spinuzzi shows that taking these
innovations seriously has far reaching implications for information
design. In particular, it reveals limitations of the traditional
User-Centered Design.
Please note that this is the first book published within a new MIT
Press series, "Acting with Technology". The goal of the series is to
publish books that contribute, from a wide range of theoretical
perspectives, to an understanding of technology as a crucial facet of
human activity enacted in rich social and physical contexts.
If you want to know more about the series, published and upcoming
books, how to submit a book proposal, etc., please take a look at:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/browse/browse.asp?sid=B10D340D-6495-
4598-8030-580216191D8E&btype=6&serid=135
or go to "mitpress.mit.edu" and then follow links to "BOOKS" -->
"Series list" --> "Acting with technology"
Hope you'll find it interesting!
Best wishes,
Victor
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