what's so great about zopeds?

Leigh Star (star who-is-at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
Sat, 11 Oct 1997 09:45:48 -0500 (CDT)

Thanks to all for the clarification of the boundaries of zoped, and cautions about flotsam and jetsam.
Perhaps it would help to frame our questions comparatively -- to me what is powerful about the concept of
zoped it that it is one of those rare concepts that captures the "between-ness" at the core of social
science. (The people, Diane! without essentialism.) We can't SEE change, or work, or thought, and we're
stuck with indicators (like measurement of progress, gestures, words) that point back to that limnal zone.
A couple of questions: how do people visualize the zone? Are there other "between" concepts that we
could compare to zoped?

L*