So my most substantive point being that Wenger does not write enough about
destabilizing events. CoPs just get over them. In the midst of where xmca
this weekend, it's easy to see that there is a lot more to it than that.
Seriously destabilizing events are due to internal tensions in the community --
tensions that are deep in the structures, patterns, and processes of
participation. These troubles are ongoing difficulties, beginning who knows
when, and ending perhaps only if the the "community" becomes completely
dismembered. That's the reality we with xmca may face today, with an unknown
collective future, and each of us contributes to this future by the personal
decisions we make. For any of us to stop posting, to unsubscribe, to switch
from lurker to poster, and so on, alters the destiny of xmca -- and that is not
to blame anyone, but to say that each of us, whoever we are, of whatever
persuasion, race, gender, is responsible for shaping what xmca is, both by
whether we chose to participate, and in what form that participation takes. It
is in part through the mix of individual identities that a diversity of views
is possible, that a necessary but not sufficient condition for a thorough
swirling of differences is a heterogeneous membership. And I repeat that is
not to to find fault with anyone's personal decisions to participate and how to
participate, but simply to say that each of us carries a responsibility for
what our collective is about, and what it does. None of us alone are
determining factors, and no subset of us is solely culpable.
I honestly place quantity of postings lower in status than quality. Without
naming names, what drew me to this list, and what continues to draw me in, is
the possibility of interacting with those who can share their insights into the
problems of understanding human activity. I'm far more interested in those
postings that carry a transformative nature -- both for my own personal
development, and for those systems of activity in which i participate -- than
in those which simply take a position and defend it. I realize that others
may have this same goal, and so I am going to try to make contributions that
those others will find of interest. I think Wenger has got it wrong, that CoPs
somehow get over their "destabilizing events". I think Yrjö has it right, in
Leaning by Expanding, in pointing out the depths of the tensions that will rise
to the surface and appear as "destabilizing events". I think xmca, in its
divergent subjectivities, in its mix of who is here, is heaviltiy fraught with
tensions, and we can look forward to more "destabilizing events", no matter how
hard we try to avoid them.
=====
Bill Barowy
"Everything is a becoming, without beginning or end"
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 01:00:08 PST