Friday, April 06, 2012

Download "Losing by Expanding" for free

The editor of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication has just informed me that my October 2011 article "Losing by Expanding" is available for free on the JBTC website through June. I'm really delighted. If you have any interest in activity theory, please do check it out. Here's the abstract:

Losing by Expanding: Corralling the Runaway Object
Clay Spinuzzi 
Abstract
Third-generation activity theory (3GAT) has become a popular theoretical and methodological framework for writing studies, particularly in technical communication. 3GAT involves identifying an object, a material or problem that is cyclically transformed by collective activity. The object is the linchpin of analysis in the empirical case. Yet the notion of object has expanded methodologically and theoretically over time, making it difficult to reliably bound an empirical case. In response, this article outlines the expansion of the object, diagnoses this expansion, and proposes an alternate approach that constrains the object for case-study research in writing studies.

Take a look and see what you think. And while you're at it, check out JBTC's latest two award-winning articles. Both (by Artemeva & Fox and by Swarts) are fantastic.