{"id":6095,"date":"2004-05-22T22:40:16","date_gmt":"2004-05-22T22:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2004\/05\/22\/porter-et-al-20\/"},"modified":"2004-05-22T22:40:16","modified_gmt":"2004-05-22T22:40:16","slug":"porter-et-al-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2004\/05\/22\/porter-et-al-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Porter, et al., 2001, “Institutional Critique”"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 5<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

 Porter,
\nJames, et. al. "Institutional Critique: A Rhetorical Methodology for
\nChange." CCC<\/i> 51 (2000): 610-642.<\/p>\n

Big Idea<\/b><\/p>\n

Institutions can be changed through rhetorical activism.  Porter and
\ncompany develop broad model for institutional critique driven by rhetoricians as
\nagents for change and pomo geographical interrogations to stage institutional
\ndynamics (needing change).  The authors juxtapose "despair" as
\nthe unsatisfying alternative to a more hopeful and upbeat, even (re)visionary
\nempowerment:  the field<\/i> must vigorously imagine its potential for
\nchanging institutions, for transforming them through language, and for thinking
\nabout rhetoric and writing as activisms beyond academe. 
\nThe essay sets up a macro-micro paradigm for thinking about institutionality,
\nthen, invoking a model of "boundary interrogation," the
\nspace-made-over institutional critique ventures into the space between the
\nmacro-micro and into the "’zones of ambiguity,’ or spaces that house
\nchange, difference or a clash of values or meanings."  <\/p>\n

Wondering About<\/b><\/p>\n

My impression is that this article and the premise it advances are much more
\ncompelling due to the group authorship.  A team-authored article suggests a
\nformidable solidarity, a banding together of credibility and force–the very
\nsort of coordinated leverage that makes institutional critique possible. 
\nAs I read the essay, I had questions about whose agency is staked in the
\ncritique.  Is rhetorical-discursive institutional critique most potent when
\nit is pressed by clearly recognized members of the institution?  Membership
\nand stability can work both ways; institutional critiques, I suppose, work best
\nwhen they are formulated by stable bands of respected participants<\/strike>
\nmembers in the
\ninstitution.  Contingent faculty, like new students or new workers,
\nprobably<\/i> have a more challenging time leveraging such critiques against
\ntheir own proven records for longevity and loyalty. Hear this: "You haven’t
\nbeen here long" or "You won’t be."  So I wondered whether
\nthis is a workable plan for all<\/i> comp\/rhet folks or whether it is much more
\nrealistic for WPAs and groups of faculty with a shared sense of how<\/i> the
\ninstitution should change.  Even if, as the article suggests, we rename
\n"composition teachers" as "writing experts" and fashion thereby a public
\nsensibility about the broad applicability of rhetoric and writing, we (must)
\ncontinue to feel the tug of unsavory labor practices.  In other words, it’s
\nnot easy to promote the *new and improved*  "writing expert" toward a
\npublic role when the writing program (employing said experts) relies on
\ncontingent and contract labor to cover courses. "Writing experts" like
\n"composition teachers" can’t be remade publicly until they are remade
\nmaterially, validated and stabilized by the institution’s commitment to capital
\nsupport–all of which is why this works wonderfully at an institution with a
\nwell established writing program and works less swimmingly in places where the
\nwriting program is already in the institution’s cellar (free of despair, not
\ntribulation).  In such places,
\nrouting institutional critique through a writing program (in the name of
\nrhetoricians for change) can be risky business–even riskier, perhaps, where
\ncomp\/rhet is a subset of English.  So leaving behind the name "composition
\nteacher" because it reflects the field’s history of inferiority and subjugations of labor doesn’t alter
\nthe legacy or the lingering (even prevalent) realities of exploited contingent
\nfaculty. That said, I’m sure Porter et al. don’t take the plights of lesser
\nestablished U’s or contingent
\nfaculty lightly.  <\/p>\n

The essay outlines the avenues of institutional critique, categorizing
\ncritique into administrative, classroom and disciplinary areas.  And in the
\nadministrative area, the WPA can make great strides toward institutional
\ncritique by 1.) establishing graduate programs in writing and rhetoric and 2.)
\nestablishing a writing major.  These in-house steps affirm the validity of
\nthe writing program; they give body to the power necessary for such
\ncritiques to be taken seriously.  <\/p>\n

In a few places, I wished for clearer examples.  The critical geography references are terrific: Edwards Soja, David Sibley, Doreen Massey, Michel de
\nCerteau and David Harvey figure into this essay, and for composition, I suppose
\nthis essay is attempting something new by calling on spatial analysis postmodern
\nmapping and boundary interrogation–both of which play heavily in their
\nanalysis.  The single diagram in the article–a map of a site for
\ninstitutional critique–is included without much of the boundary analysis said
\nto be so promising. It maps the space "where Institutional Critique operates,"
\nbut it left me wondering why the map wasn’t subject to the interrogations
\npromoted in the essay.  I
\nalso wondered why the space of institutional critique didn’t bear out a
\nproductive tension with the composition classroom (in the map-diagram) the way it did
\nwith the discipline and the macro institution. I didn’t pick up on much boundary
\ninterrogation of their diagram nor any acknowledgement of the problem that
\nmapping (unanalyzed, two-dimensional) tends to be oversimplified for any complex
\nsystem.<\/p>\n

I wanted a few more examples of a "zone of ambiguity."  The
\narticle leads with one example in which a usability expert and former CWR
\nstudent pushes for the term usability<\/i> in a Microsoft development
\nchart.  Is a space
\nbetween macro and micro ambiguous to the extent that it is contested or
\ninstitutionally unstable?  In such cases, institutional critique from all
\ndirections (not just from WPAs and faculty) inevitably continue to refigure the
\nzone.  Its contestation is discursive and material, but can we say the
\nsame of an unambiguous zone?  Or are all institutional zones–all spaces,
\neven–ambiguous to the degree that they are rhetorically charged?  Is this
\ntrue more so when we conceive of space as, in Harvey’s terms, "produced." 
\nOne example brought in is Purdue’s OWL, which is atop the heap of online writing
\nlabs.  The essay describes the scientific appeal of a lab<\/i> space (sig.
\nof naming), the ongoing battle in an
\nEnglish department about the usability of space.  Question: how, if at a place such as
\nPurdue, the tension rages on, might smaller, lesser established writing programs
\nventure into such perilous matches.  Must they?  What are the risks?<\/p>\n

Passages<\/b><\/p>\n

"[I]nstitutional critique is an unabashedly rhetorical practice
\nmediating macro-level structures and micro-level actions rooted in a particular
\nspace and time" (612). <\/p>\n

"But we have a particular spin on institutional critique.  Our spin
\nis more locally situated, more spatial, and more empirical than most theoretical
\ndiscussions of institutions" (613). <\/p>\n

"We are frustrated, however, with the gap between local actions and more
\nglobal critiques (which are far more common in our disciplinary discourse). We
\nare frustrated, in other words, when global critiques exist only in the form of
\nideal cases or statements, which all too often bracket off discussions of
\nmateriality and economic constraints in favor of working out the best case
\nscenario–which, all too often, does not come to pass" (615). <\/p>\n

"Talking about institutions at this macro level is extremely important (as we
\nargued earlier in respect to WPAs) because it is one way to discuss how our
\npublic lives are organized and conducted (both for us and by us). But limiting
\nour analytic gaze to macro institutions also encourages a level of abstraction
\nthat can be unhelpful if it leads to a view of institutions as static, glacial,
\nor even unchangeable (i.e., if it urges us to see change as requiring
\nlarge-scale action that few people rarely have the power to enforce). If
\ninstitutions are conceptualized exclusively on this macro level, we may be
\nrestricted to visualizing an abstraction of institution that makes change
\ndifficult to imagine" (621).  <\/p>\n

"Our discussion raises an important question about the relationship
\nbetween institutional action and reports<\/i> of action. Can dissertations and
\nother publications themselves be instances of institutional critique? 
\nMaybe, but as with idealized goals statements, we are suspicious of publications
\nthat do no more than recommend<\/i> or hope<\/i> for institutional
\nchange.  To qualify as institutional critique, a research project has to
\nactually enact the practice(s) it hopes for by demonstrating how the process of
\nproducing the publications or engaging in the research enacted some form of
\ninstitutional change" (628). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Big Idea Institutions can be changed through rhetorical activism.  Porter and company develop broad model for institutional critique driven by rhetoricians as agents for change and pomo geographical interrogations to stage institutional dynamics (needing change).  The authors juxtapose "despair" as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[167],"tags":[2000,178,233,1980,234,235,133,185,187],"class_list":["post-6095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading_notes","tag-change-agent","tag-composition","tag-geography","tag-institutional-critique","tag-macro","tag-micro","tag-porter","tag-rhetoric","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nPorter, et al., 2001, "Institutional Critique" - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2004\/05\/22\/porter-et-al-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Porter, et al., 2001, "Institutional Critique" - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 5 mins Porter, James, et. al. 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To the extent that institutions are rhetorical constructs, rhetoric can be deployed to enact change across a range of institutional scales, from the micro to the macro.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Models"","block_context":{"text":"Models","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/models\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6813,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/22\/chreod-alignmen\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":1},"title":"Chreod: Alignment of Set-ups","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading more than writing today, I planned to get down notes on another run through Porter, Sullivan, et. al.'s \"Institutional Critique,\" (re: my own little life raft in postmodern geography) the same for Richards' short piece on \"The Resourcefulness of Words,\" from Speculative Instruments (re: wandering resourcefulness, another spatial, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Networks"","block_context":{"text":"Networks","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/networkacy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6986,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/25\/porter-rhetoric\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":2},"title":"Porter, Rhetorical Ethics and Internetworked Writing","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"June 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Porter, James E. Rhetorical Ethics and Internetworked Writing. Greenwich, Conn.: Ablex, 1998. \"Rhetoric is a technology--and there is no neutral technology because all technologies are always already invested with a category bias; they are alywas socially and culturally situated (as Awtill indeed admits), constructed out of specific historical circumstances and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing Technologies"","block_context":{"text":"Writing Technologies","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/writing_technol\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7008,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/27\/swearingen-rc-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":3},"title":"Swearingen, “R&C as a Coherent Intellectual Discipline”","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"July 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Swearingen, C. Jan. \"Rhetoric and Composition as a Coherent Intellectual Discipline.\" Olson 12-22. [A] The creation of graduate programs in rhetoric and composition between 1975-1985 marked a sea change for the field; following this initial point, Swearingen notes several of the earliest conditions that enabled the firming up of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing Technologies"","block_context":{"text":"Writing Technologies","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/writing_technol\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6931,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/09\/wheres-rhetoric\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":4},"title":"Where’s Rhetoric?","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"April 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The above question was at the heart of last Thursday's C.15 session in New Orleans. It was a full session--packed to the walls after being bumped from one rather large space, Grand Ballroom D, to one of the smaller salons in the adjacent hallway. After a curmudgeonly attendee in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7093,"url":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/16\/lyon-rhetoric-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":6095,"position":5},"title":"Lyon, "Rhetoric and Hermeneutics"","author":"Derek Mueller","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Lyon, Arabella. \"Rhetoric and Hermeneutics.\" Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention. Eds. Janet Atwill and Janice Lauer. Knoxville, Tenn.: Univ. of Tennessee P, 2002. 36-52. Lyon works at the intersection of rhetoric and hermeneutics in an effort to make sense of the relationship between the two concepts. To weigh the terms and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"audience\"","block_context":{"text":"audience","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/tag\/audience\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}