Luiz Ernesto Merkle wrote:
> Molly, Eva, Kathie, Eugene, and Mike,
>
> Thank you very much for the comments and for the references.
>
> A few weeks ago, Prof. Vitali Makhlin, from Moscow, has indicated me
> Bakhtin's "Speech Genres" book as related to what I was doing.
>
> Mike, suggested me Holquist's article "The politics of representation".
>
> When I was reading the latter several thoughts came to my mind, and I
> would like to share some with you.
>
> Holquist has structured his article through a framework that "personal",
> "collective", and "dialogical" perspectives (The terminology is mine). He
> analyses how "dialogical" perpectives go beyond the dualisms the separate
> the individual from the social of the two former ones. In the sequence
> the writes about Bakhtin.
>
> In a recent collection of articles edit by Batya Friedman ("Human Values
> and the Design of Computer Technology", Cambridge, 1997) there are two
> articles, one from Lucy Suchman ("Do categories have politics? The
> language/action perspective reconsidered;" ) and a reply from Terry
> Winograd ("Categories, disciplines, and social coordination; Commentary on
> Suchman article and Winograd response;" ). Both Suchman and Winograd's
> works have storng connection with the field of Computer Supported
> Cooperative Work.
>
> The main point Suchman intends to make is that technologies such as "the
> Coordinator", which embodied a "language-action" philosophy, are used to
> control and maintain power hierarchies
> Although Suchman mention Haraways's work and Winograd agree with some of
> her points, it seems to me, without generalising, that both are in a
> struggle the reminds me of the "personal" and "collective" perspectives
> Holquist mention in his article. Not to mention that he also mention that
> "linguistic" approaches are the main stream in Language Studies. Well, in
> HCI and CSCW, although Situated Cogniton and Language/Action approaches
> cannot be considered main stream at all.
>
> Of course CHAT, in generally only referred as "Theory of Activity", is
> being explored in HCI and CSCW, by people like Engestrom, Kuutti, Bodker,
> Nardi, Bannon, Kaptelinin and others (Bonnie Nardi, 1996, "Context and
> Consciouness", MIT Press).
>
> I'm sure I'm not see the whole picture yet but for me, the discussions
> made by Holquist in his article, can be used by technologists to foresee
> and to understand what is happening in the area.
> In a article by Deborah Hicks (Learning as a prosaic act, "Mind, Culture,
> and Activity, 3(2), 1996, pp102-118), l she says Vygotsky and Bakhtin have
> more to offer than what is currently being used.
>
> I would say that in technology development and study, the situation is
> even worst. I say that because the mediational and dialogical view of
> technology are not always easy to grasp, people see technology other as a
> thing or instrument, or as only a means to carry signals. The fact is that
> technology is itself part of out culture, and as well as our language, it
> is co-constructed with people. (Edwin Hutchins "Cognition in the wild" and
> Bruno Latour "We have never been modern", they also have article in MCA.).
>
> I have some questions of methodology in studying this subject, and I would
> like suggestions, but I'm asking them in the following message.
>
> I did not have a chance to look at Bateson's work yet, but thanks for the
> references.
>
> Thanks again,
> Luiz
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
> University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
> Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
> N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle