ABSTRACT

This collection, aimed at scholars, teachers, and practitioners in technical communication, focuses on the praxis-based connections between technical communication and theoretical movements that have emerged in the past several decades, namely new materialism and posthumanism. It provides a much needed link between contemporary theoretical discussions about new materialisms and posthumanism and the practical, everyday work of technical communicators. The collection insists that where some theoretical perspectives fall flat for practitioners, posthumanism and new materialisms have the potential to enable more effective and comprehensive practices, methodologies, and pedagogies.

chapter |20 pages

Introduction

part I|97 pages

Shifting Politics and Histories

part II|77 pages

Shifting Methodologies

chapter 6|19 pages

Writing Down the Machine

Enacting Latourian Ethnography to Trace How a Supercomputer Circulates the Halls of Washington, DC as a Report

chapter 8|20 pages

User Experience in a Networked Environment

How Latour Can Help Us Do Better UX Work

part III|84 pages

Shifting Workspaces

chapter 10|18 pages

Objects of O2

A Posthuman Analysis of Differentiated Language Use in a Cross-Disciplinary Research Partnership

chapter 11|20 pages

Beyond Hearts and Minds

Posthumanism, Kairos, and Technical Communication in US Army Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency