ABSTRACT
In chapter 1, I contrasted structuralist representations of communication, knowledge, learning, persons, and communities as abstract and objectified with sociohistoric perspectives that treat these terms as concrete and heterogeneous. In that chapter, I also introduced the activity perspective I pursue throughout the book. That theoretical perspective has been elaborated through exploration of specific notions in subsequent chapters: task multiplicity (chap. 2), semiotic genres (chap. 3), trajectories of participation (chap. 4), literate activity and mediated authorship (chap. 5), authorship and non-authorship (chap. 6), the sociogenesis of functional systems (chap. 7), authoritative and internally persuasive discourse (chap. 8), and, finally, laminations and chronotopes (chap. 9). These variations on the theme of writing and disciplinarity as activity could be read as the structural framework of the book.
