Leigh wrote:
Growing up as a working class girl, the
>math/science train at the school level seemed to go very fast, with few
>portals of entry. Once I managed to get "on," it, it wasn't hard, but if
>(it seemed to me at the time, and still does) I missed one opportunity,
>the next would be a long time coming, if at all. I was able to stay on
>the train during high school, but at the college level, I didn't know the
>code for the entrances. So I moved to another train, the social science
>one, that had many more kinds of doors, closer together, and moved at a
>pace I could articulate with my life (needing to work odd jobs, do
>community organizing, grow up).
odd jobs, community organizing, and growing up: here are a bunch of
trajectories that are determined with respect to Leigh at very different
timescales but all intersecting at the Moment conceptualized. Odd jobs, from
the perspective of the working person and with respect to growing up, last
not very long; community organizing -- well, the adult Leigh might see that
train moving from a distance, orthogonally, or might be huffing and puffing,
jumping back and forth, to keep both her academic and her community
commitments moving in parallel.
Occasionally I'd glance up and note that
>the science/math train had rumbled by again. By the end of college, it
>appeared to be entirely without entrances, as I was moving orthagonally to
>it, not just at a different rate, but sideways.
>
>So a question here is: what can we say about the properties of the
>timescale as mediating object to explain this sort of thing? Clearly
>people can use the representation of a time scale as an object for power
>over others, or as empowering. Anatomy is slow physiology. A scalpel may
>illuminate or obscure this. A CD Rom with speeded up anatomical slices
>may illuminate or obscure this. Whether illuminating or obscuring depends
>on the ...power of those yielding these tools? ....or...?
Well, this has been sitting for a while waiting for my commentary/
paraphrase but resisting me.
>people can use the representation of a time scale as an object for power
>over others, or as empowering.
I can use the scalpel as a way of illuminating the perspective that anatomy
is slow physiology (would i then be empowering others? by making some
knowledge available....) -- or as a way of obscuring it (and thus securing
my hold on the knowledge, which presupposes that I have it to begin with)
------ sorry for the literality, but thinking through different timescales
gives me motion sickness. Is that, Leigh, in the range of what you meant?
>By the way a historical footnote on boundary objects: the original work
>on boundary objects that I did in the mid-80s grew directly out of
>observing how two groups (clinicians and basic researchers in brain
>research) with different time lines combined data. Clinicians canonically
>need answers quickly and instantially; basic researchers work on a longer
>time scale with more formal data points.
>
>Thanks for a great paper, Jay, and a great discussion, all.
Ditto. since i think in slow motion, i'll post the rest in a follow up
Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183