bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Reconstruction of Universities
Authors: Levin Morten , Greenwood Davydd J.
Published: November 2010

This paper reflects on ways AR might support a transformation process in universities and in their relationship to the rest of society. As a point of departure, universities inherited from the 19th century Humboldtian university the credo of 'researching and teaching any important subject' and creating new knowledge through the freedom of thought. They became a state within the state. Universities came to try to nonopolize the knowledge production system while fighting the battle for freedom of thought and expression in academia. They have not, however, participated in the struggle to create knowledge based on and useful to groups in society other than powerful academic, political, and business elites.
Now universities face new challenges. The existing modus operandi is unlikely to survive for much longer because the users of knowledge and those who pay to keep universities open, question the relevance of university-created knowledge. This challenge arises from two very different social groups. Businesses are creating their own schools of advanced study and many ordinary people are disenchanted with university knowledge that does not relate to their own life world. This problem is particularly acute in the social sciences, since people have social knowledge of their own. Many pecple realize that social science produces knowledge about the everyday world that is incomprehensible or irrelevant to ordinary people.
We propose taking a different view of universities, conceptualizing them as members of many different knowledge supply chains, not as autopoietic systems. The ultimate challenge in a specific knowledge supply chain is to gain societal legitimacy for the knowledge production process and to supply valued knowledge for the users. Pursuing this approach forces a reinvestigation of the rigor/relevance argument. We argue that universities should seek legitimacy in the external world through integrating themselves in many and diverse knowledge supply chains and that this effort will simultaneously improve the quality of knowledge produced by the universities. We offer an Action Research strategy to achieve this integration by linking knowledge users into the research process and integrating the researchers into the knowledge production systems and activities of the users beyond the academy.
Creating Transdisciplinary Knowledge
Authors: Levin Morten , Borgen Eirik , Gjersvik Reidar , Klev Roger , Munkeby Ida , Rolfsen Monica , Sæbø Hans Jørgen
Published: November 2010

This paper presents the action and intellectual agenda for transdisciplinary research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The research aims at integrating technological and social science knowledge in a participative effort in enterprise development. It is argued that there are clear similarities between the epistemological foundation of engineering and action research oriented social science. Emphasis is also placed on how the cooperation within the research team and the participative approach to enterprise developments shapes the type of knowledge that is produced.
The 'Unattainable1 Objects of Psychosociological Analysis
Authors: Lévy André
Published: November 2010

During its (very brief) history, psychosociology has experienced many changes, affecting its methods as well as its goals. It has nevertheless held a place apart among the other social sciences. Its specificity rests not so much on the objects — groups, institutions, organizations — that it has chosen to study, as on the manner according to which they have been approached, linking field and theoretical work. As a result, a different view of these objects has evolved, if not their dissolution as such. Social organizations, in particular, have appeared as complex constructs defying any general definition and, thereby, any general theory. In return, they have been revealed as the locus of events, or processes, through which history, both individual and social, is in the making.
Action Research between Large-Scale Socioeconomic Changes and Workplace-Level Developmental Activities
Authors: Kasvio Antti , Lahtonen Maarit
Published: November 2010

Global economic competition is currently placing modern welfare states under increasing pressure to change. New kinds of solutions must be sought in all spheres and at all levels of the state's functioning. But it is very difficult to mediate the macro- and micro-level approaches in a sensible manner and to utilize the innovatory potentials of social science in actual research practice. This article describes a current ongoing action research project within the City of Helsinki for the development of work in a number of the City's workplaces. The local developmental activities are closely connected to broader discussions about the development of the city's internationalization strategies and of the role of high-quality welfare services in their realization. The project assumes that it is possible to build a fruitful interaction between the development of new practices at local level and the broader strategic discussions that are going on in other echelons of the City's organization.
Corporate Efficiency and Employee Participation
Authors: Colbjørnsen Tom , Falkum Eivind
Published: November 2010

This article is an attempt to integrate the efficiency perspectives that are traditionally nurtured in business schools with the employee participation perspectives outlined in studies of industrial relations. Global communication between business units, and employee participation and co-determination within business units, both have impact on corporate efficiency. The two approaches are synthesized in a conceptual framework combining the articulation of interests and resistance with value-creation and value destruction.
On the Relationship between Social Science, Participation Processes and Changes in Industrial Work in Germany
Authors: Leminsky Gerhard
Published: November 2010

The following contribution to this debate should be understood as originating from the viewpoint of a scientist associated with the trade unions, who from the beginning of the 1970's was closely involved in both the conceptual and the practical development of the themes which can best be jointly described as the Humanization of Work (in German "Humanisierung der Arbeit", or HdA). The German Federal Government's action program of the same name, dating from 1974, and a series of related publications (published by Campus) have provided unique insights into the complexity of workplace restructuring schemes which are still forthcoming. In my discussion I will concentrate on the problems of the achievement of new goals, using the example of humanization and work structuring, and the challenges associated therewith for trade unions, companies and social sciences, but I shall only be able to touch peripherally on the role of the state.
The Ambiguities of Globalization
Authors: Toulmin Stephen
Published: November 2010

In the industrialized countries, notably of Europe, the 1990s have seen a systematic erosion of the social protections that the liberal democracies carefully built, as a matter of policy, in the years after the World War II: the protections we know collectively as 'the Welfare State'. This change of direction in social policy is rationalized by appeal to economic arguments: the 'logic of the global market' (it is said) makes it necessary for any major exporting country to enhance its global competitiveness, by reducing the economic burden of 'non-wage ' labour costs imposed on industry as a result of earlier Welfare State policies. The cogency of the economic arguments rests (it is argued here) on confusing two interpretations of the terms 'global' and 'globalization'. In multinational businesses or other global enterprises, these terms imply that the economic role of governments will be reduced, and global competition takes place between corporations.In governments, by contrast, the same terms imply a continued - even, an enhanced - economic role for governments, and global competition takes place, rather, between countries. If tackled on this last mentioned level alone, the economic arguments are, indeed, hard to undercut: addressed One Nation State at a Time (so to say) matters of 'comparative advantage' tempt rival Governments to engage in competitive cost cutting, and the costs of social services are an obvious target for cost cutting, e.g. in France or Sweden. Tackled on a wider ('global') level, this article argues, the same issues can be stated in terms less damaging to Labour and Environmental interests.
'Looking' at Conversations
Authors: Hoekstra Marike
Published: November 2010

This paper discusses a conversation between six Swedish women who participated in a transnational exchange that formed part of a project in the framework of the EU's Leonardo Da Vinci Program, the aim of which is formulated as: "To develop tools for competence enhancement for organizations active in the field of social insurance ". The project sought to link organizations that are active in the field of social insurance, both in the private and the public sector, from Sweden, Belgium, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The joint 'learning ' that took place as a result of the transnational exchange is illustrated in the first part of this paper with fragments of conversations and recorded episodes, all of which are part of a narrative on cross-cultural personal encounters.
The paper reflects on the transnational experience, in the light of the intertwined notions of learning, language and cultural embeddedness. In the second part, the paper discusses the significance of interaction, encounter, mutuality, contrast, and surprise, and further will allude to the relationship between competence and organization.
Telling of (not about) Other Voices
Authors: Shotter John
Published: November 2010

These notes are offered as a contribution towards creating a 'dialogically-structured' form of action research (Toulmin and Gustavsen 1996). What I do want to do in these notes is to show how Wittgenstein's (1953, 1980) claims — that (i) "nothing is hidden" from us in our conduct of our own practices, and that (ii) "the origin and primitive form of the language-game is a reaction " — and the methods of philosophical investigation he outlined, can be used to great effect to make us more aware of our own rules in structuring our own everyday affairs. His methods work, not in terms of theories worked out ahead of time in seminar rooms or research laboratories by experts, but in terms of certain practical uses of language 'on the spot': they lead those involved in the practice to attend to what usually passes them by unnoticed, to attend, we might say, to what is in fact visible but usually unremarked on explicitly. Crucially, his 'reminders ' can lead us to focus on novelties, on new but previously unnoticed possibilities for 'going on' available to us in our present circumstances, but present to us only in fleeting moments. If we can allow ourselves to be 'struck' by these novelties, then we can often go on, not to solve what has been seen as a problem, but to develop new ways forward in which the old problems become irrelevant. Thus their main point is the institution within our already existing work practices of a new (dialogical) practice leading to our own increased awareness or mindfulness of the details of these practices. The material in these notes can, I hope, be viewed as a useful set of tools, or 'ways of talking' — Wittgenstein would call them reminders — that work to draw our attention to aspects of our already existing practices that it is important for us to notice.
Ein Ding ist ein Thing
Authors: Latour Bruno
Published: November 2010

By studying the practice of science, the domain called "science studies" had a deep implication on the definition of politics; it is for this reason that the author was asked to portray what image of politics one could get from a science studies perspective; since the traditional difference between left and right depends on the choice of the frame of reference chosen, this paper is also an attempt at redefining left from right without, as it is customary, identifying left with forms of scientism; it is thus an attempt at finding a movement forward not associated with the notion of progress.
The New Task of Swedish Universities
Authors: Brulin Göran
Published: November 2010

In 1997 the law governing higher education and research in Sweden added a third task to the work to be done by the Swedish Universities: they were now no longer expected just to educate and to do research but also to relate to and collaborate with their local environment. The present article argues that this third task implies a new form of knowledge, viz., knowledge generated in interactive cooperation with practitioners. The change in the law has encountered resistance from the research establishment. However, there are good reasons for the universities to change from a position of noble seclusion towards continuous interaction with their environment. Three arguments are proposed that articulate the need to actively involve the world of practice in the research process. The National Institute for Working Life received an assignment from the government to promote the implementation of the universities ' third task. A program was started by approaching and involving primarily the 20 university colleges in networking and development activities. It seems that action-oriented, practice-based research can more easily find a foothold in these institutions. It cannot be denied that the third task has started to put new, challenging demands on the typical academic role.
Argumentation, Cooperation and Charity in Qualitative Inquiry
Authors: Smaling Adri
Published: November 2010

Contemporary argumentation theory is the most appropriate logical basis of qualitative inquiry. Formal logics, deductive or inductive, have turned out to have little value in some particular practical situations and local contexts. An optimal observance of the cooperative principle and the charity principle in argumentation theory may not only be merely methodologically motivated, it may also have an ethical motivation. This ethical motivation may have a methodological significance and may be supported by a philosophy of life.
Action Research to Reduce Sickness Absenteeism
Authors: Steensma Herman , van der Vlist René
Published: November 2010

An action research program was started in two Dutch concrete construction factories to reduce absenteeism due to sickness. Representatives of workers and managers analyzed all possible causes of absenteeism. This process was guided by the action researchers, who also explained theoretical models. Smaller working parties were then formed to formulate proposals for action. The working parties consisted of workers and foremen. Top management set aside a budget for improving the work environment. The communication structure in the organization was improved, especially by encouraging two-way communication and by creating more opportunities for workers to have their say and to participate. Care was taken to ensure a good fit between the absenteeism program and a Quality Control Program. The program succeeded in drastically reducing sickness absenteeism. The change process is described, with special attention to theoretical models and to the characteristics of action research.
Materiality, Writing, Subjectivity
Authors: Moser Ingunn , Law John
Published: November 2010

We start the paper by reviewing the theory of desire developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Their theory of desire is complex in narrative terms, but it is, or so we suggest, overly romantic. It doesn't really explore the ways in which different performances of desire intersect with one another. We then proceed by telling stories from the life of a severely physically disabled person, Liv. These are stories to do with desire, and they are intended to show (with Deleuze and Guattari) that desires are discursively complex, and that they are produced in specific materially heterogeneous circumstances. But the stories are also intended to explore the intersections of different kinds of desires — and indeed the ways in which they produce one another. We conclude by returning to the question of story-telling, and press the view, touched on above, that single stories about persons (or their contexts) are unable to catch the ways in which different stories intersect to produce personal and social realities.
The Socio-technical Designer as Wizard and Juggler
Authors: Kuipers Herman
Published: November 2010

In the Netherlands what is called the Modern Socio-Technical School — an approach to integral organizational renewal — is well developed. This theory of practice is mainly concerned with design of organizational structures, which leads to an important point of criticism: the Dutch approach is an expert driven form of social engineering, lacking an effective, process-oriented intervention strategy. The approach does not know how to deal with power in organizations. Here we do not accept that this criticism is an inevitable characteristic of the Dutch approach. The criticism is used as a trigger to search for the contours of a process-directed intervention strategy, which fit in the design theory.
Rethinking Production Games
Authors: Holmberg Robert , Karlsson Niklas , Styhre Alexander
Published: November 2010

Within the discourse on contemporary, post-Taylorist working life, production games and simulations are widely accepted as tools to facilitate learning and communication in organizations. We suggest that research programs dealing with production games can be seen as lying between two typical positions. Insiders — any significant group that proposes that simulations are useful — argue that they are fair representations of work practices, and that they hold specific qualities. Outsiders — researchers seeking to understand how simulations work in action — reject these kinds of 3.. priori statements, claiming that it is not meaningful to express any of the qualities of simulations prior to the simulation situation without succumbing to mythologizing simulations. This paper presents a study, undertaken from an outsider perspective, of a simulation game used in Sweden. We suggest that simulation games are complex social interactions carrying a considerable, albeit not yet fully exploited, potential for learning. The outline of the simulation favored the use of recently developed shop floor practices over old practices, and the explanation for the success of the new practices was often interpreted in terms of technical aspects of the production process. Observations and interviews indicate that research from an insider perspective tends to underestimate the emergent character of the simulations and how the game can be a vehicle for discipline and the creation of dysfunctional patterns in workgroups as well as learning. In summary, the outsider perspective could, as in this study, provide alternative perspectives on simulations, providing new insights and ideas, for research as well as practice.
Technological Innovation and Welfare
Authors: Petrella Riccardo
Published: November 2010

The first part of this article presents a brief analysis of the reasons why the immense amount of technological innovation in (old and new) industrialized countries does not seem to have contributed to any increase in social welfare. It is argued that the support from the political system to multinational firms' strategies for globalization is too affirmative, for reasons that are more of an ideological than of an economic nature. Thus, in the second part of the article the contours of a transnational politics are outlined, in an attempt to show how technological innovation can serve the development of a new social welfare around the globe.
Creating a New European Development Agenda
Authors: Ennals Richard , Gustavsen Bjørn
Published: November 2010

The article presents a new European collaborative project, building on experience of regional development coalitions across Europe. Globalization is complemented by regionalization, and the emergence of new structures between the levels of individual enterprises and national governments. Competitive collaborative advantage is to be derived from learning across cultures, celebrating differences rather than seeking uniformity. Particular case study accounts are given from Italy, Germany and Sweden, but the framework is offered for a broader project, with the theme of Europe as a Development Coalition.
Structural Change and Regional Development Coalitions in South-Eastern Lower Saxony
Authors: Prätorius Gerhard
Published: November 2010

New approaches to securing jobs and dealing with structural transformation are being taken in Southeast Lower Saxony. The two companies that predominate in the region — Volkswagen AG and Salzgitter AG — have founded their own personnel development and training companies. A regional development agency has been set up with the participation of the trade unions. These new approaches can be understood both as internal company objectives and as a contribution to overall responsibility for a given location. Some exemplary project initiatives are presented here in the form of regional strategies for innovation and development concepts, business start-up networks and collaboration between business and universities.
The Emilia-Romagna Model of Development Coalitions
Authors: Mazzonis Danielle , Ennals Richard
Published: November 2010

The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna has often been presented as a case study of economic success through the development of structures to support collaboration between numerous small and medium sized enterprises. This article seeks to identify the distinguishing characteristics of the associations, districts and agencies involved, and describes phases of development over a number of decades. The Emilia-Romagna phenomenon is described in terms of local, regional and national government, and of the enduring enterprise culture of small businesses.
Worker Involvement, the New Technologies and New Forms of Company Organization
Authors: Leminsky Gerhard
Published: November 2010

The concept of democratic participation has been receiving wide attention over the past few years — both in Germany and at the European level. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for social and corporate praxis where practical implementation of the idea encounters ingrained resistance and reservations from different groups. On the one hand, the trades unions are afraid that forms of direct democratic involvement will act in competition to the institutionalized forms of in-company codetermination; on the other, many managers — having discovered that worker involvement is a good way to improve both productivity and quality — are simultaneously opposed to the transfer to the grass roots of any real responsibility or decision making rights. Nevertheless, the narrow use of employee participation as a mere management strategy should not obscure our view of the opportunities for self-organization, democratization and personal development that are inherent to democratic participation.
Assertion of Employee Interests and the New Autonomy at Work
Authors: Glissmann Wilfried
Published: November 2010

In the current transformation of transnational corporations we are confronted with a new kind of dynamism inside these companies. To grasp the nature of these "self-organizing processes" becomes a prerequisite for employees to determine and assert their interests under the new conditions. The following article combines two spheres of work of the author. On the one hand there is the practical experience as employee and member of works council and supervisory board at IBM Informations-systeme GmbH in Germany. On the other hand there is a close cooperation with the philosophers Klaus Peters and Stephan Siemens.
Time, Knowledge and Social Dialogues
Authors: Schröder Lothar
Published: November 2010

Formerly the classic center of gravity for the world of work, the workplace as such is now losing its formative influence. It was on the workplace that instruments of social standardization were previously fixed. Work is becoming more flexible in time and more mobile in space; work forms are becoming more multilayered; CVs are looking increasingly more discontinuous. As new time-space relations emerge, new principles of action for dealing with social standardization are necessary. A joint trade union venture known as the multimedia + workworld bureau has already launched a number of experiments:
work operations organized in keeping with the principles of management by objectives;
an advisory service for questions relating to telework;
the operation of a virtual network of experts;
the development of benchmarks for matters of in-company data protection;
ideas for supplementing the traditional instruments of social standardization.
Social Construction as Process
Authors: Hosking Dian Marie
Published: November 2010

Here we outline one variant of social constructionism — one that emphasizes social ontologies as constructed in ongoing co-ordination processes. We stress that these may be constructed in relations between written and spoken words, non-verbal actions, artefacts, and objects 'in nature'. Relational processes often construct persons and worlds in either/or relations, but 'both/and' is also possible. We explore some 'new' both/and possibilities in various areas of practice showing, for example, that research can be viewed as construction and that it does not have to strive to enact the standard view of science. Instead, it might construct inclusive, multilogical, and heterarchical relations, constructing 'power to' go on in new ways. While social constructionist arguments do not demand any particular methods or relations, we suggest that there are good reasons why approaches of the sort described might be of value, might be more ecological, in today's fast', postcolonial, multi-cultural worlds.
Multi-Party Collaboration
Authors: Bouwen René , Craps Marc , Santos Enrique
Published: November 2010

Non-governmental organizations are gradually coming to play an increasing role in developmental projects and organizational psychology is being challenged to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of inter-party collaboration. This article documents how the stakeholders in a social development project develop meaning through discursive practices, when they define the issues they work on from their own particular perspectives. Development work is pictured in the use of metaphors as being aid, trade, transfer, exchange, etc. through the use of specific forms of thought and language. Each metaphor leads into different meaning configurations and characterizes a specific quality of dialogue. Special attention is paid to the action strategies that allow the 'weaker' parties to remain included in the development project. Discursive practices, metaphors and qualities of dialogue are illustrated for two multi-party projects. These illustrate how a social constructionist reading can reveal and generate discourses that allow the inclusion of weaker parties, in the cases under study, as representatives of the local communities.
Multiple Voices of Democracy in a Cosmopolis
Authors: Boonstra Jaap , van de Graaf Henk
Published: November 2010

This article describes an action research process to solve problems of democracy in neighborhoods in a modern European city. A relational constructionist approach has been used as the theoretical basis for this work. The methodological framework is based on action research, survey feedback and search conferences. The article begins by describing the historical and cultural context of democracy in the city. Special attention is paid to the development of the relationship between researchers and members of neighborhood associations on the one hand, and to the building of a mutual consensus on the problems, focus and methodology of action research on the other. Multiple voices of democracy start to make themselves heard in a process of data gathering and feedback. New futures and strategies for the associations were developed at a search conference. After the search conference had taken place new relationships were established in a communal dialogue with neighborhood councils. An evaluation of the process focuses on lessons learned by members of the associations in terms of strategy formulation; the establishment of relationships during the process; the multiple voices of democracy in a modern city; the effectiveness of the combination of a start up conference, survey feedback and search conference; and the way representative democracy can be improved in a relational process of social construction.
In/Out and the Fold
Authors: Engelschmidt Peter , Steyaert Chris
Published: November 2010

In this paper we attempt to write a conceptual contribution on the possibilities for intervening in contexts of exclusion and where 'raising voices' is at stake. It can be argued that organizations can only be vehicles, i.e. spaces for intervention, which need explicitly to be related to societal discourses. This conceptual framework is developed in the context of a research project focusing on intervention initiatives in Danish social psychiatry, re-addressing the position of psychiatric patients. It is effected through exploring three conceptual lines. First, we re-read the literature of OD from a becoming ontology, indicating its exclusion of history and time as part of its analytic frame. Second, we develop the notion of 'care of the self as a way to understand how one can work patiently at one's own (discursive) limits. Third, we develop a conceptual frame of nomadic intervention, through the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, which makes such a nomadic practice of the care of the self possible. The paper seeks to be stone thrown in the water, where OD and HRM is active, and where the expanding circles in the water remind us that every concrete intervention is a matter of politics/ ethics.
Work and Organization through Intercultural Dialogue
Authors: Almeida F. H. Eduardo
Published: November 2010

This article presents 25 years of experience with the theory and practice conducted through the intercultural relationships between an indigenous rural Mexican community and a team of urban professionals who became an insider partner in regional human and community development. The first section offers the synchronic and diachronic aspects of the epistemological perspective that has been evolving over the years; the theoretical basis that includes three challenges and six levels; and the methodology of presence, interdisciplinarity and agency. The second section is the narrative of the experience. It was rewarding and enriching to discover at international psychology congresses the convergence of our approach with that currently used by the social relational constructionist group led by Dian Marie Hosking.
Modernity as History of Time
Authors: Baumann Zygmunt
Published: November 2010

Our understanding of space and time has developed according to the means we have used to control or traverse them: from muscle power via heavy vehicles to the computer. Where once a day's journey was an undertaking, software has now shrunk distance to nothing. Information travels with the speed of light. This has had its effect on the relationships between the controllers and the controlled. From the relationship of serf to seigneur, this relationship devolved into the 'marriage for life' of capital and labor, enshrined in the miles-long factories with high walls of the industrial age. Now this has gone, to be replaced by the seductive lightness of being, by the disembodiment of labour by the new entrepreneur, his capital always inflight, seeking new deals with the speed of an electronic signal.
Managing, Subjectivities and Desires
Authors: Law John , Moser Ingunn
Published: November 2010

The position that no particular theory, whether a theory of lack or one of intensity, can grasp what is most important about desire is extended and located in the context of a formal organization, dealing in particular with managerial subjectivities. The concerns ventilated are related to action research, in particular the concern for understanding management and organization and engaging in a process of change — here called interfering and making a difference. Social theory here is seen as a set of stories and theorizing as a political activity: ontological politics.
Toward a Science of Qualities in Organizations
Authors: Reason Peter , Goodwin Brian
Published: November 2010

The development of complexity theory in the natural sciences is described, and summarized in six principles of complex emergent wholes. It is suggested that complexity theory is leading biology toward a science of qualities based on participation and intuition. It is argued on metaphorical and epistemological grounds that these principles which describe the emergence of complex wholes can be applied to social and organizational life. The six principles are then applied to qualitative and action research practice, with a particular reference to co-operative inquiry, in order to provide principles for good practice and theoretical support for the nature of valid inquiry processes.
Research-based principles for the design of instructional messages
Authors: Mayer Richard E.
Published: November 2010

Multimedia explanations are communications using words and pictures to explain how something works, including animation and narration in computer-based environments or text and illustrations in book-based environments. A cognitive theory of multimedia learning reveals a concurrence requirement for meaningful learning, in which corresponding verbal and pictorial representations must be held in working memory at the same time. Based on a theory-based research program, I propose five design principles: multimedia principle, to use words and pictures rather than words alone; contiguity principle, to place words close to corresponding pictures on a page or to present narration concurrently with corresponding animation; coherence principle, to minimize extraneous words, pictures, and sounds; modality principle, to present words as speech rather than as on-screen text; and individual differences principle, to use these design principles particularly for low-experience rather than high-experience learners and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners. Multimedia messages offer great potential for improving the effectiveness of communication, but only to the extent that their design is based on theory and research.
Interview
Authors: Hunter Lawrie
Published: November 2010

Richard Saul Wurman most recently attracted attention as the creator of Information Architects, a showcase book wherein twenty accomplished information architects present and discuss their graphic representations of information. Mr. Wurman is also the creator/host of the TED Conferences, which gather luminaries to ignite in the convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design; in February 2000, TED x will be held in Monterey, California.
Mr. Wurman also is or has been an architect of buildings, a mapmaker, and a redesigner of many things. For a 13-year period spanning the 60s, he published a series of architecturally oriented books on building comparisons, city analyses and Louis Kahn. In the early 80s Mr. Wurman began producing his highly successful ACCESS Guides to major cities; since then he has published dozens of guides to cities and a variety of topics including medical procedures. In 1987 he founded a company called the Understanding Business which created new formats for a variety of common documents, most notably road atlases and telephone books. In 1990, Mr. Wurman wrote Information Anxiety, an exploration of the problems we experience as a result of the information explosion; the enduring value of that work testifies to its perspicacity.
Theoretical, empirical, and practical considerations in designing informational text
Authors: Sadoski Mark
Published: November 2010

Informational text has been frequently criticized for being either bland and failing to promote appreciation for a subject or sensualized at the expense of responsible accuracy. This article suggests some guidelines for producing responsible but engaging informational text. Support is provided from cognitive theory, empirical research, and classic maxims of rhetoric. Guidelines include using concrete language in a judicious manner, supporting abstractions with concrete examples and explanations, and the use of personalization. Brief examples are provided.
The impact of connectives and anaphoric expressions on expository discourse comprehension
Authors: Degand Liesbeth , Lefèvre Nathalie , Bestgen Yves
Published: November 2010

This study focuses on the impact of linguistic markers of coherence on the comprehension of expository discourse. The impact of such markers on comprehension (i.e., off-line) is a highly controversial topic in current studies, especially for connectives for which a facilitating as well as an interfering role has been demonstrated. As a matter of fact, it seems that connectives facilitate the comprehension process in that they improve the reading process, but that they do not increase comprehension of the text. It might even be possible that they ease the reading task in such a way that they provide the reader with the 'impression' of having understood the text instead of a real understanding.
The objective of the experiment was to test this far-reaching hypothesis for the use of connectives in expository texts. We wanted to determine the impact of causal connectives such as because ('parce que') and so ('donc') on comprehension and on the feeling of understanding, contrasting it with the impact of anaphoric expressions. Contrary to previous results, our experiment shows that the presence of connectives actually improved comprehension while it did not have an impact on the perception of understanding.
Evaluating 350 newspapers — factors contributing to their success
Authors: Schoenbach Klaus , Lauf Edmund , Stürzebecher Dieter , Knobloch Silvia
Published: November 2010

What is it that helps printed newspapers successfully compete with other media for the audience — their marketing efforts, the content they offer, or their design? This paper summarizes the results of an extensive research program, the evaluation of 350 typical local dailies in Germany. They were analyzed thoroughly in 1989 and again in 1994. In addition, a survey provided extensive information about their marketing measures during that period. Finally, socio-demo-graphic and other conditions that newspapers are confronted with in their trade areas were included in the analysis. Criteria for success were the circulation and the reach of every newspaper. Newspaper design, in general, proved to be a little more important than content and marketing for attracting new readers and for keeping old ones. Different strategies, though, seem to apply depending on whether a newspaper wants to reach young or less educated readers or has to compete with other local papers. In general, however, an 'airy,' well-structured design, a greater variety of topics every day, more local orientation and the strict separation of news and entertainment were the best recipes for newspaper success.
Variability of persuasive message effects
Authors: O'Keefe Daniel J.
Published: November 2010

This paper reports new information concerning the variability of the persuasive effects of variables across messages. Evidence from meta-analytic reviews of persuasive effects research indicates that such variability is common and substantial, even under well-specified experimental conditions. The implications of this evidence for the design, analysis, and interpretation of research on persuasive message effects are discussed.
It's in the picture Kazuo Terakado, Scientific journalist
Authors: Hunter Lawrie
Published: November 2010

Kazuo Terakado is a leading scientific journalist in Japan. He has made a significant contribution to the popularization of science through his leadership in the epoch-making Newton Magazine. He is the author of numerous scientific books including Deep Space and Solar System Guidebook. On behalf of Document Design, Lawrie Hunter recently posed some document-related questions to Mr. Terakado.
Designing learnable texts
Authors: Gülgöz Sami , Kumkale G. Tarcan , Aktunç M. Emrah , Eskenazi T. Terry
Published: November 2010

Revising texts to improve learning has produced successful revisions but the reasons why they were successful has not been made clear. In this review, we describe the text revision strategy derived from the text processing model of Kintsch by Britton and Gülgöz (1991). Three principles were developed and implemented on natural texts to make them more memorable. The texts used in different experiments varied in content and language and the studies employed different measures of learning and reading time. The emerging pattern from the reviewed studies is that revised texts that add the missing connections to the text, lead to better learning, especially when readers lack inference-making skills, domain-specific knowledge or motivation for cognitive effort.
Generic integrity in document design
Authors: Bhatia Vijay
Published: November 2010

Genre is realization of a set of communicative purposes embedded in recurring rhetorical contexts displaying typical cognitive structuring. Most professional documents display their typical 'generic integrity' which is often identifiable in terms of a combination of text-internal and text-external factors. Although generic integrity is somewhat flexible and fluid, and dependent on participant relationship and institutional discursive practices, it is one of the important contributors to effective and successful design and development of professional and public documents. In this paper, I would like to consider examples of public documents from legal and business settings to focus on the generic integrity of these documents in the context of issues like the simplification and easification of legal documents, selection and appropriation of linguistic resources in the textualization of professional genres, reader accessibility of professional and public discourse, suggesting implications for the writer's commitment to the intended message and readership(s), in the act of document design, and the relationship between the design and performance of professional documents in their real contexts of use.
What can production data teach us about the effectiveness of instructive text design variables?
Authors: Maes Fons
Published: November 2010

This paper focuses on the way in which production tasks — in this case writing an instructive text — can provide us with data, which can be used to evaluate textual variables which are assumed to be relevant in processing, using, and hence designing instructive texts. The second and third sections describe the set-up and results of a production experiment in which subjects had to write an instructive text given one of two users' conditions: they had to assume that their readers either had to execute the instruction only once (reading-to-do) or that they had to learn the instructions described (read-ing-to-learn). This independent variable was claimed to have an effect on the strategies writers choose, in particular on the way in which they use two important types of information in instructive discourse, goal vs action information. As such, this experiment sheds light on the interaction between use conditions and design characteristics of instructive documents. As the method used in the experiment is not self-evident in assessing the effectiveness of text design variables, the last section evaluates the use of production tasks as a way of replicating, amending, refining and perhaps even outperforming data obtained from other methods.
Business genres and their corporate context
Authors: van Nus Miriam
Published: November 2010

This paper presents a model designed to analyze written business genres within their business context. Within a context specified at the levels of organization, business sector and business community, business genres are studied with respect to writing, distribution and reading practices. As such, the model extends beyond generic textual features and allows analyses of individual and collective writing activities and textual choices writers make (i.e., writing practices), the selection of particular channels and text formats for generic textualizations (i.e., distribution practices), and the way recipients read genre texts and make choices based on their readings (i.e., reading practices). In the model, the actual analysis of textual features of genre texts is clearly embedded in a wider situational framework. This paper argues that such a framework is a prerequisite for a proper understanding of textual realizations of business genres. Moreover, it provides business professionals with a tool to design texts that are effective responses to specific communicative needs.
The usefulness of genre theory in the investigation of organizational communication across cultures
Authors: Nickerson Catherine C.
Published: November 2010

This paper extends the concept of genres of organizational communication proposed by Yates and Orlikowski (1992), to allow for the contextualized linguistic analysis of genre text-ualizations in multinational organizations. It does so by drawing on the findings from previous studies that have reported on cross- and inter-cultural variation in business genres and also on the work of genre analysts working in the fields of applied linguistics, organizational communication and rhetoric. The analytical constructs of Context and Situation are first discussed and this is followed by Genre and its formal and substantive characteristics. The final section of the paper outlines the approach to the linguistic analysis of discourse provided by Bhatia (1993), and shows how this may be of particular relevance to organizational communication across cultures.