Brenton Faber
Technical Communication
Clarkson University
Forthcoming (June 2007) from Continuum Press
Discourse, Technology and Change
Brenton Faber
Discourse, Technology and Change
Brenton Faber
‘This work is going to be important both as an analysis and as a model for how this sort of analysis should be done’.
Prof. Clay Spinuzzi, University of Texas at Austin
‘[Brenton Faber] is building the groundings for the next stage of work in this area’
Prof. Charles Bazerman, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Discourse, Technology and Change presents a detailed analysis of discourses that initiate, enable, and stabilize social change in organizational contexts. The book examines the function of written discourse within this setting to examine the dynamic relationships between writing, technology, and socio-cultural change. Focusing on everyday texts used to create technical and social change, the book offers a detailed study of the intersections of discourse, technology, and persuasion illustrated through an empirical case study of technological change in an academic institution. The book seriously engages the claim that texts dually construct and reflect social networks and social action. Working at both the mirco and macro textual level, the book examines the functions of change discourse providing a framework for understanding how change is constituted within social networks.
This cutting-edge monograph will be of interest to academics researching language and social change, discourse analysis and applied linguistics.
Brenton Faber is Associate Professor in the Communication and Media Department at Clarkson University.
Table of Contents
1.Preface
2.Writing research and social change
3.Theoretical intersections: Discourse technologies and autonomous change
4.Discourse/technology: Heterogeneous narratives
5.Discourse, stability and change
6.Migrations and conversions
7.Linguistic politeness and technologised means
8.Conclusion: Change studies