摘要:

Recent work in the sociology of scientific knowledge leads us to believe that organization exists in the interpretive processes of its members. A theory of communication is presented which views the communicational process as a double translation, from text to conversation and conversation into text. Using this theory as a basis, a conception of complex and extended forms of organization is developed which demonstrates that the text‐conversation cycle underlies a complex process of networking out of which the identity of the organization emerges, and social structuring occurs, resulting in the division of labor and coordination. Implications of the theory are briefly considered for researc

ISSN:1050-3293    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00118.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Postcolonial theory and criticism provide rhetorical studies with an important critical and political perspective with which to engage in issues of neocolonialism and racism. This essay offers an overview of postcolonial theory and criticism, and delineates some of the implications of a postcolonial perspective for rhetorical studies by demonstrating how a postcolonial rhetorical approach pushes the traditional frontiers of the discipline in a manner that enables racially and culturally marginalized perspectives on rhetoric to emerge.

ISSN:1050-3293    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00119.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper extends theories of public goods to interactive communication systems. Two key public communication goods are identified. Connectivity provides point‐to‐point communication, and communality links members through commonly held information, such as that often found in databases. These extensions are important, we argue, because communication public goods operate differently from traditional material public goods. These differences have important implications for costs, benefits, and the realization of a critical mass of users that is necessary for realization of the good. We also explore multifunctional goods that combine various features and hybrid goods that link private goods to public ones. We examine the applicability of two key assumptions of public goods theory to interactive communication systems. First, jointness of supply specifies that consumption of a public good does not diminish its availability to others. Second, impossibility of exclusion stipulates that all members of the public have access to the good. We conclude with suggestions for further theoretical developm

ISSN:1050-3293    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00120.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Functionalism practically disappeared as an explicit tradition in communications due to the radical theoretical realignments of the 1980s. Three criticisms proved decisive to this undoing; political conservatism; problems of logic, mainly tautology and an inappropriate appeal to teleological explanations; and a tendency to impose psychological and sociological analyses on specifically cultural materials. Formulated in reference to systemic Parsonian functionalism, which dominated the broader social sciences, these criticisms are relatively easy to reconcile within the contextual, actionist Mertonian tradition, which took root in the communications context, but only through a constructive dialogue with the cultural studies and cultural indicators approaches, both of which have spent the last decade investigating a traditionally functionalist concern – the hypothesis of cultural systems integration. If functionalism offers to this cross‐fertilization a focus on the normative orders of society, the cultural indicators approach provides a rigorous methodology and cultural studies cautions a greater sensitivity to social hierarch

ISSN:1050-3293    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00121.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Book reviewed in this article:Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America: A Social HistoryStephen O. Murray Studies in the History of the Language Science, volume 69Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration StrategiesWilliam L. Benoit

ISSN:1050-3293    

DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00122.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY