Activity Theory, Actor-Network Theory, and Culture in the Twenty-First Century

Pihlaja, Beau

doi:10.7330/9781607326649.c009

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Case studies, particularly as they are used to teach intercultural competence, tend to focus on the complexities of formal language use and difference (Matsuda & Matsuda, 2011) and/or broader, quantitatively identified “value” differences (Thatcher, 2012), often simply assuming the presence of the material objectives people are trying achieve across cultures. A failure to center these objectives, however, especially risks pushing students toward a deeper ethnocentrism or reinscribing preexisting stereotypes about cultural others (Pihlaja, 2018). Case studies showing the kind of materially complexity like that I observed at these sites would be especially useful in classrooms.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I have argued elsewhere that objects/objectives in activity do not figure prominently enough in statistically defined cultural studies approaches (Pihlaja, 2018). And this lack of explicit focus on objectives inexorably sets written professional communication researchers and participants on increasingly essentialist, stereotyping paths both in and outside the academy (Gordon & Williams, 2002; Thatcher, 2012).…”

Section: Project Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inventing Others in Digital Written Communication: Intercultural Encounters on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Pihlaja

2020

Written Communication

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At a multinational company, daily written communication between staff, supervisors, customers, and suppliers is frequently conducted using digital tools (e.g., emails, smartphones, and texting applications) often across multiple nationally, linguistically, and conceptually defined borders. Determining digital tools’ impact on intercultural encounters in professional environments like these is difficult but important given the sheer volume of digital contact in technical and professional environments and the ongoing global struggle to broker peace and productivity amid communities’ many perceived differences. Using examples drawn from a case study of binational manufacturing sister companies, I build on recent work in professional, networked written communication to analyze two WhatsApp exchanges, one between a central study participant and his customer, another between the participant and an employee. This study shows how asynchronous digital communication tools created complex “silences” in writing between participants. In these silences (e.g., a lack of or delayed response to a text) individuals try to explain others’ actions for themselves. Drawing on a combination of third-generation activity theory and Latourian actor-network theory, I show that while explaining others’ actions in writing with whatever cultural shorthand is available may remain a common part of everyday life and research, it can be a poor guide for explaining others’ actions, especially in digital writing. My study shows how research of, and instruction in, digital tool use in intercultural writing contexts requires attention to the material conditions and objectives potentially shaping one’s own as well as others’ composition choices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Project Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inventing Others in Digital Written Communication: Intercultural Encounters on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Pihlaja

2020

Written Communication

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“…Because AT's and ANT's histories of application in TPC are well known, I only summarize the dynamics of both that are most salient to my proposal here (refer to Pihlaja, 2018Pihlaja, , 2020. AT, developed through successive generations, centers the objective, goal-oriented activity of an individual or group (subject) that is mediated by material and conceptual tools, governed by rules and norms coordinated by a particular division of labor, and connected to variously defined communities.…”

Section: A Methodology That Builds On Past Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…AT has a hard time articulating where objectives come from and what sustains them (Nardi, 2005) whereas ANT, especially in its Latourian iteration, forecloses the possibility of collective action or intervention that substantially changes assemblages (Noys, 2012). But both frameworks remain useful for studying digitally mediated, intercultural TPC—particularly when they are coordinated (Fraiberg, 2013; McNair & Paretti, 2010; Pihlaja, 2018, 2020)—thereby offsetting their individual analytical weaknesses. To illustrate, I turn to my use of AT and ANT while studying everyday TPC at a multinational company on the Mexico–U.S.…”

Section: A Methodology That Builds On Past Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday Ethics at the Border: Normative Ethics for the 21st Century

Pihlaja

2022

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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This study uses examples from a case of everyday technical and professional communication (TPC) at a small multinational company on the Mexico–U.S. border to illustrate how coordinating analytical frameworks commonly used in TPC analyses—activity theory (AT) and actor-network theory (ANT)—can help TPC scholars and practitioners negotiate interpreting others’ asynchronous communication fairly and justly, even in complex, intercultural contexts. The examples illustrate why developing normative ethics for the 21st century requires attention to the ways that goal-oriented activity and the flat, networked interaction of the human, nonhuman, and black-boxed forces intersect in everyday TPC practitioners’ lives and work.

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“…While cultural usability is a complex topic, historically, it is concerned with the design of products for usability "cross-culturally," requiring critical analysis of the wider global context for any given local users . My prior work studying digitally mediated intercultural professional communication provided me with numerous opportunities to think through communication technology use in and across cultural contexts (Pihlaja, 2018).…”

Section: Conceptual Framework/precursorsmentioning

confidence: 99%