Russell,
\n David R. "Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory
\n Analysis." Written Communication<\/i> 14 (1997): 504-54.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Russell proposes that the convergence of activity theory and North American
\ngenre theory (read largely through Bazernman’s genre systems) yields a useful
\nblend for researchers concerned with accounting for the ties between writing in
\nschool settings and writing in the (mostly professional) world. In effect,
\nRussell is making a case for scalability in these systems. In other words,
\nto understand the dynamics involved in the writing classroom, researchers must
\nunderstand the various orders or spheres of discursive structures impinging on
\nthe most local context: students writing in school. By connecting activity
\ntheory and genre theory, Russell offers a framework for description and
\nanalysis. Recognizing scalability in dialogism (metaphors of conversation)
\nhelps us account for the mid-level relations in heteroglossia.<\/p>\n
Russell begins by noting his concern about the limitations in dialogism’s
\nconversation metaphor (emph. utterances and oral language events) for its
\nneglects of "nonlinguistic tools." Dialogism also focuses perhaps too
\nlocally on interactions between pairs of communicators at a local scale.
\nHis version of activity theory prefers metaphors of interactivity and networks
\nover conversations. Also, it is not concerned as much with deep structures
\nto explain behavioral phenomena. Russell claims he is trying to build a model
\nfor analysis of style<\/b> and motivations<\/b>. There are multiple
\nco-operating activity systems converging at a given site–the classroom. <\/p>\n
Russell’s example’s include the biology classroom and the mundane genre of
\nthe grocery list (in his interactions with his daughter, Madeline).<\/p>\n
Activity theory’s basic units of analysis: individual, collective, and
\nbehavior.
\nTools: mediational means.<\/p>\n
Toward the merger of activity theory and genre theory, we must account for
\nthe following:<\/p>\n
1. go beyond the conventional notion of genre as a set of formally definable
\ntext features that certain texts have in common across various contexts, however
\ndefined, and consider genre in relation to social action and social motives;
\n2. see discourse (vocalizations and inscriptions) as one kind of tool among many
\nothers and to relate genres to other kinds of material actions;
\n3. look at the ways written genres help mediate the actions of individuals with
\nothers in collectives (activity systems) to create stabilized-for-now structures
\nof action and identity;
\n4. understand the concept of genre as operationalized social action helps
\naccount for change as well as stability.<\/p>\n
"In this article, I set out to synthesize aspects of Y. Engestrom’s<\/b>
\n(1987, 1993) systems version of Vygotskian<\/b> cultural-historical activity
\ntheory with aspects of Bazerman’s<\/b> (1994a) theory of genre systems to
\nunderstand the relation between writing in school and writing in other social
\npractices, particularly disciplines and professions and the powerful
\ninstitutions they serve" (para. 1).<\/p>\n
"I suggest that this synthesis further expands in three ways what I believe
\nis the most elaborated current theory of context–dialogism. It provides (a)
\na broader unit of analysis<\/b> than text-as-discourse, (b) wider levels of
\nanalysis<\/b> than the dyad, and (c) an expanded theory of dialectic that
\nembraces objects and motives of collectives and their participants<\/b> to
\nexplain reciprocal interactions among people through texts, which dialogism
\ndialogism as the heteroglossic interpenetration of social languages. By tracing
\nthe intertextual relation of a disciplinary or professional genre system to an
\neducational genre system, through the boundary of a classroom genre system, the
\nanalyst\/reformer can construct a model of the interactions of classroom with
\nwider social practices" (para. 2).<\/p>\n
"These dialogic theories explain discourse<\/b>, including writing, not in
\nterms of some bracketed underlying conceptual scheme but as a dynamic<\/b>,
\nfunctional<\/b>, intersubjective<\/b> process of reciprocal negotiation among
\nwriters and readers, in which discourse mediates interactions among conversants"
\n(para. 4).<\/p>\n
"By substituting metaphors of conversation and dialog for metaphors of
\ncontext and its contents, dialogism expands theories of writing to allow a more
\ndynamic and interactive–or ecological–approach, in which one can pursue a more
\nthorough and symmetrical analysis of the relation between writing in schooling
\nand society than is possible with theories that depend on some underlying
\nconceptual scheme" (para. 5).<\/p>\n
"The ongoing social practices in which speaking and writing operate also use
\na host of nonlinguistic tools<\/b>: buildings, machines, demarcated
\nphysical space, financial resources, data strings, and so on<\/b>" (para. 5).<\/p>\n
"I hope that analysis of genre systems may offer a theoretical bridge<\/b>
\nbetween the sociology of education and Vygotskian social psychology of classroom
\ninteraction, and contribute toward resolving the knotty problem of the relation
\nbetween macro- and microstructure in literacy research based on various social
\ntheories of context (Layder, 1994)."<\/p>\n
"Like social constructionism, activity theory<\/b> traces cognition and
\nbehavior, including writing, to social interaction<\/b>."<\/p>\n
"An activity system is any ongoing, object-directed, historically
\nconditioned, dialectically structured, tool-mediated human interaction."<\/p>\n
"Tools<\/b> (mediational means) refer to material objects<\/b> in use by
\nsome individual or group to accomplish some action with some outcome–that is,
\ntools-in-use, as I will sometimes refer to them, to remind us that a material
\nthing is not a tool unless it has been put to some use, and the uses of a single
\nmaterial thing may differ over time and across different actions and activity
\nsystems."<\/p>\n
"The use of tools mediates the behavior of people in activity systems in
\nspecific and objective ways that are realized historically, through a developing
\ncooperation and\/or competition in the specialized use of tools arising from the
\nsocial division of labor (Leont’ev, 1981). Activity systems can stretch out in
\nspace and time and multiply through social division of labor to become large,
\npowerful, and immensely varied, as their histories are played out dynamically
\nthrough the use of a vast range of tools–often including inscriptions as
\ndiscursive tools."<\/p>\n
"Genres predict<\/b>–they do not determine–structure."<\/p>\n
"The activity system of an intermediate cell biology course<\/b>, like any
\nother course, forms a complex, stabilized-for-now site of boundary work<\/b> (Gieryn,
\n1983) between the activity system of a discipline\/profession<\/b> (cell
\nbiology) and that of the educational institution<\/b>."<\/p>\n
"If we have a principled way of tracing the dynamic circulation of genres,
\nthe intertextual links between classrooms and families and ethnic neighborhoods,
\ndisciplines and professions, business and government and advocacy groups, and so
\non, then the role of writing in selection may be clarified."<\/p>\n
"Bazerman (1994a) defines genre systems as "interrelated genres that interact
\nwith each other in specific settings" (p. 80)."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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