Hello Everyone,
Since I am a first-time poster, let me introduce myself. I am a PhD student
in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at Iowa State University in
Ames, Iowa. I am studying this semester with David Russell and currently
working on an activity theory paper for his course. He suggested that when
I felt coherent enough about my work I send you all an email explaining it
and asking for feedback. Today I feel especially coherent, so I thought I'd
give it a try. :)
I am currently studying workplace enculturation, specifically enculturation
into non-apprenticeship workplaces. What I am most interested in at the
moment is how new workers gain/retain/negotiate authority within their new
communities of practice. I rely heavily on Bourdieu for much of my
understanding of authority: some authority must be bestowed by an
institution (although not necessarily a literal one), but some authority
also depends on the neophyte worker's ability to successfully cash out
his/her cultural capital (skills, knowledge, expertise, what have you).
My current research subject is an interesting case. He has not succeeded in
mastering the codes and conventions of his new community, despite the fact
that he was (eventually) given some mentors to lead him through the maze of
unwritten rules. At times my subject seems to actually intentionally
disregard community conventions. The result has been a loss of authority
for him, in the eyes of his community. However, he's keeping (and probably
will keep) his job because he is a computer expert: he has some cultural
capital that is in high demand and he would be difficult to replace. So on
he goes, flouting the community's conventions governing use of tools and
division of labor--yet he remains in his position. My fledgling theory
about this is that computer experts see computers as both the tool and the
object. Then they go work in communities of practice that see computers
only as a tool. My computer expert has never learned to understand or value
the objects of his new activity system (teaching and research) and he
probably never will. In fact, I would argue that he doesn't even see
himself as a part of their activity system. I'm wondering if this is a
trait of computer administrators in general--and something that might
deserve further study.
My question for you all is this: can you think offhand of any
books/articles that are must-reads for me? As I said, Bourdieu is my
favorite theorist of the moment, closely followed by Vygotsky and AT in
general. I've also found Patrick Dias' new book helpful. I'm still
struggling with authority, though. It's tricky and slippery, yet is seems
to me that understanding how it works is essential to understanding why/how
enculturation works or doesn't work. Then how dynamics authority is
impacting/being impacted by technology. If you can think of any reading on
the subject you'd recommend, I'd love to hear about it. And if any of the
rest of you are studying issues of workplace enculturation, I'd love to
talk with you, on or off the list.
Thanks.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Elizabeth A. Wardle <ewardle@iastate.edu>
Doctoral Program in Rhetoric & Professional Communication
Iowa State University of Science & Technology
http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/phorum/
www.public.iastate.edu/~ewardle
"What good fortune for those in power that people do not think."
--Adolf Hitler
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