Degree Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2001
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
English
First Advisor
Dorothy A. Winsor
Abstract
Historians and social scientists have long studied the construction and operation of conventional categories like "nature/culture." In this dissertation, I take a rhetorical approach to the study of a conventional category I refer to as the "technical/non-technical split," the arbitrary but powerful articulation of what is and is not "technical" that structures contemporary organizations. To accomplish this study, I conducted an ethnographic study of the ways that the organizational and individual belief in the separation of "technical" from "non-technical" structured daily work at an Internet startup company. I analyze the formation of the technical/non-technical structure, a formation caused by and resulting from the organization's change from a tiny virtual company of four to a formal organization of 16. I also explore the specifics of the re-distribution of labor, texts, and physical space, and examine the ways that those changes impact the distribution of material and social capital. I close by drawing out the implications of my study for scholars and instructors of rhetoric and professional communication. I explore the impacts of my study on the rhetoric of technology and the implications of my study for contemporary understandings of the position of technical writers within organizations.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31274/rtd-180813-67
Publisher
Digital Repository @ Iowa State University, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu
Copyright Owner
David Paul Clark
Copyright Date
2001
Language
en
Proquest ID
AAI3016698
File Format
application/pdf
File Size
176 pages
Recommended Citation
Clark, David Paul, "A rhetoric of boundaries: living and working along a technical/non-technical split " (2001). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 1034.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/1034
Included in
Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons