sticks and dogs

Kevin Leander (k-leand who-is-at students.uiuc.edu)
Sat, 7 Nov 1998 10:57:41 -0600

This is just an short illustration I thought might be of interest to some
on the list, and doesn't directly respond to any recent threads that I'm
aware of.

I often reflect on how our understanding of mediation is tied up not with
theory in some abstract way, but with "concrete abstractions"--particular
examples and metaphors that continually shape our understandings. There
are many such metaphors and illustrations. (Maybe certain interactions are
so commonplace in writing and research that we'll eventually just refer to
them by number?)

One commonplace is Bateson's (1972) illustration of the blind man with the
stick. Where is the mental system bounded by the blind man tapping along
with the stick? Bateson responds, "The way to delineate the system is to
draw a limiting line in such a way that you do not cut any of these
pathways in ways which leave things inexplicable" (p. 459). So, if we are
explaining locomotion, then we need the "street, the stick, the man," while
if we are explaining eating, the stick is no longer relevant.

As Duranti and Goodwin remark, however, one of the limitations of such a
metaphor is that Bateson poses a world that is relatively fixed and
immuatable (1992, p. 5), whereas context is shaped, interactive,
intersubjective. This gets to my illustration--a "simple" experience while
walking across the campus yesterday:

A blind student is with his seeing eye dog into a three-sided courtyard
amidst a few buildings. The dog is stalling, seems confused, or perhaps
even playfully resistant. The student is scolding the dog loudly: "How
many times have we been to Dr. X's office and you've taken me there? Huh?
How many? (striking dog on back). Now, take me there, right now! You
take me there!" (pushing dog with foot from behind). Dog cowering, looking
about, moving forward toward one building, then shifting directions,
traversing the courtyard at an angle on the sidewalk, student following
along, continuing to talk to dog. Trees, bushes, chain along the sidewalk,
me and another student looking from opposite corners, then looking at each
other, I'm wondering what to do or if to do anything.

So how do we delineate and understand the system, when the stick is a dog?

Kevin Leander
Doctoral Student, Curriculum & Instruction
University of Illinois
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/k-leand/homepage/index.html