Elizabeth -- sounds as if you are on a very interesting path.
I'd say read Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral
Participation, a small book put out by Cambridge U Press in 1991 (sorry, I
don't have it in front of me right now so this may not be 100% correct) which
will help you get from thinking of acculturation as an exchange to thinking of
it as initiation into a context of activity -- from ladders to circles.
I'd love to hear how you came to choose this topic.
Helena Worthen, Assistant Professor
University of Illinois
Chicago Labor Education Program
Elizabeth A Wardle wrote:
> 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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