Triangles and Tribulations

How the sociology of translation can help us understand a social science framework—cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)—as a set of uneasy settlements that both further and betray their original intentions.

How do social science frameworks get taken up and spread? In Triangles and Tribulations, Clay Spinuzzi uses the sociology of translation to reread the history of one such framework, cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). CHAT originated in the 1920s and 1930s work of Soviet psychologists in the Vygotsky Circle, with its key insight—mediation—depicted in a simple triangular diagram drawn by Lev Vygotsky. From there, CHAT was developed and popularized by international scholars, including Finnish researcher Yrjö Engeström, who used Vygotsky's triangle as a basis for his own. Through this progressive development, CHAT carried on the work of its forebears, building on their foundations—or so we are sometimes encouraged to understand these transformations.

But each such translation, Spinuzzi argues, is also a betrayal: Each innovation opens new possibilities for CHAT but also disrupts a previous settlement. Examining specific points in CHAT's history, Spinuzzi reviews how CHAT has been applied to different domains, in service to different projects, and evaluated through different trials, undergoing rhetorical transformations. These translations, sedimented as a series of settlements, have allowed it to persist as a social science approach and develop as a framework for workplace studies. But they have also involved accumulating concepts and terms from various social sciences, yielded radical changes in scope, and led to ongoing disputes about what constitutes its unit(s) of analysis. In examining CHAT's triangles, Spinuzzi considers how social science frameworks live through practice and dialogue so that they can continue becoming meaningful to others.Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
Part I: Method and Research Object
2 Translations and Betrayals
3 CHAT’s Generations—or Strands, or Waves?
Part II: Translations of CHAT
4 Vygotsky’s CHAT: Marxist Psychology Before the Great Terror
5 Leontiev’s CHAT: Marxist Psychology After the Great Terror
6 Westernized CHAT in 1987: An Interventionist Design Approach
7 Interlude: CHAT as a Sociocognitive Base for North American Writing Studies
8 Engeström’s “Third-Generation” CHAT: An Organizational Sociology
9 Engeström’s “Fourth-Generation” CHAT: An Implementation of Public Policy
Part III: Translations of Scope
10 The Scope of the Expanding Object
11 The Scope of the Unit of Analysis
12 The Diffusion and Translation of CHAT
Notes
Works Cited
Index“Offers a timely, comprehensive, and thoughtful journey through the evolution of activity theory. A must-read for anyone looking to understand its relevance and application in a rapidly changing world.”
—Stan Karanasios, Professor in Information Systems, University of Queensland

“Using actor-network theory, Spinuzzi places Vygotsky’s, Leontiev’s, Engestrom’s, and design and writing studies scholars’ versions of activity theory in their time, location, and ideological settings, identifying methodological and theoretical differences and difficulties.”
—Charles Bazerman, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara; author of A Theory of Literate Action

“An engaging investigation into how CHAT is rhetorically translated across fields, cultures, and paradigms and a fantastic meta-discourse on how this framework is mediated by its own structure. A must-read for CHAT researchers and any ambitious framework-building scholars.”
—Huatong Sun, Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Human-Computer Interaction, University of Washington Tacoma; author of Global Social Media Design

“A unique and timely book. Spinuzzi argues that dialogue and practice should service the development of CHAT, rather than be shoehorned into serving its internal concerns.”
—David Guile, Professor in Education and Work, University College LondonClay Spinuzzi is a Professor of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include Tracing Genres through Organizations (MIT Press), Network, and All Edge.