Getto, G (2011) Toward a rhetoric of infrastructure: Doing new media writing with communities. PhD thesis, Michigan State University, USA.
Abstract
In the following dissertation, I develop heuristics for collaboratively and sustainably contributing to community infrastructures through writing. Based on the findings of an observational study on how students enrolled in my first year composition and service-learning class created new media writing projects with community partners and were able to contribute to local infrastructures, I argue that students mobilized and invented different kinds of knowledge depending on what technologies, modes, and genres they had experience with and access to as part of the class. In order to do this, they formed a strong network of skills, ideas, and other resources with their community partners. Reflections on these findings, along with my experiences doing community media work in Lansing, Michigan, enable me to develop a rhetorical understanding of infrastructures as networks of activity and resources—like knowledge about modes and genres—that support writing. From this perspective, I ultimately argue that the most effective means of building and sustaining infrastructures is for writers to leverage their networks to create new types of resources that can then be used to do rhetorical work in the world.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Grabill, J T |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | skills; learning; heuristic |
| Index terms: | dissertation, media, reflection, heuristic |
| Subjects: | risk assessment, research dissemination and communication, sociology, professional development |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Information Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here