Re: [unrev-II] Dervin and Sense-Making

From: Eric Armstrong (eric.armstrong@sun.com)
Date: Thu Nov 15 2001 - 14:46:59 PST

  • Next message: Eric Armstrong: "Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology"

    BTW: Could we move the discussion to ba-ohs-talk??
    It's time to start shutting down this list.

    Peter Jones wrote:

    > OK, I've just read a Dervin paper:
    >
    > ttp://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/art/artdervin83.html
    >
    > AN OVERVIEW OF SENSE-MAKING RESEARCH:
    > CONCEPTS, METHODS, AND RESULTS TO DATE
    > by: Brenda Dervin
    >
    > It comes with a proviso:
    >
    > Notes:
    > This 1983 presentation of the Sense-Making approach is now out of date
    > but
    > still provides a foundation for interested readers. For more
    > up-to-date
    > works, see the various bibliographic listings on this on-line site.
    >
    > As I read that paper it does emphasize the importance of active
    > information
    > seeking by individuals, but omits any notion of their reaction to that
    >
    > information.
    >
    > Or from:
    > On studying information seeking methodologically: the
    > implications of connecting metatheory to method
    > Brenda Dervin*
    > Ohio State University, 3016 Derby Hall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
    > Accepted 20 April 1999
    >
    > ttp://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/art/artdervin01.pdf
    >
    > "Sense-Making mandates a focus on the hows of human individual and
    > collective sense-
    > making and sense-unmaking, on the varieties of internal and external
    > cognizings, emotings,
    > feelings, and communicatings that make, reinforce, challenge, resist,
    > alter,
    > and reinvent human
    > worlds."
    >
    > Funny how the word persuasion or self-persuasion could cover so much
    > of that
    > list.
    >
    > "Factizing, of course, is not the only verbing that creates what we
    > call knowledge. There are a host of other verbings involved (e.g.
    > consensusing, negotiating,
    > power-brokering, deŽning, hunching, muddling, suppressing). By
    > focusing on
    > the verbings by
    > which sense is made and unmade, Sense-Making frees research from the
    > implicit assumption
    > that there is one right way to produce knowledge. Emoting, for
    > example,
    > usually marginalized
    > as a non-useful strategy for sense-making takes equal footing along
    > with
    > factizing. Sense-
    > Making conceptualizes every verb of collective and individual human
    > sense-making as useful
    > under some conditions and methodologically mandates research to
    > unearth
    > those conditions."
    >
    > Ditto.
    >
    > "Sense-Making assumes that issues of force and power
    > pervade all human conditions; that humans are impacted by the
    > constraining
    > forces of
    > structural power (both natural and societal) and that as individuals
    > in
    > specific situations they
    > are themselves sites of power, to resist, reinvent, challenge, deny,
    > and
    > ignore."
    >
    > Ditto.
    >
    > "Extrapolated from the above is a central assumption that ordinary
    > human
    > beings are
    > theorists, not just potentially theorists, but theory-makers.
    > Sense-Making
    > posits that theory-
    > making is a mandate of the human condition given pervasive
    > discontinuity.
    > This discontinuity
    > manifests itself in multiple ways: in the gappiness of the human
    > condition
    > with its gaps
    > between external worlds and internals, time, and space; in the gaps
    > between
    > human mind,
    > tongue, heart, body; in gaps between people at the same time; in gaps
    > in a
    > person across time;
    > in gaps between structure and person, structure and structure. The
    > assumption of pervasive
    > discontinuity leads to the assumption that no human movement,
    > collective or
    > individual, can
    > be fully instructed or fully constrained a priori. The next step may
    > be a
    > repetition, or an
    > invention; by design or by caprice; in conformity or resistance; a
    > muddle or
    > a thrashing about.
    > Whatever the next move, whether it be a move by a single person, or a
    > move
    > by one or more
    > persons on behalf of a collective, that move is made without complete
    > instruction or
    > constraint. The very idea of this incompleteness presents the
    > possibility of
    > considering these
    > moves as at least in part designed (consciously or unconsciously,
    > repetitively or innovatively).
    > Being in part designed, they can be conceptualized as practices that
    > are in
    > some way theorized
    > even if that theorizing appears mute and inarticulate or dominated and
    >
    > constrained. It is in this
    > space that Sense-Making mandates the positioning of humans as
    > theorists and
    > the study of
    > communication as dialogic."
    >
    > Ditto.
    >
    > So how come 'Sense-Making' seems only to stress the information
    > seeking of
    > actors and not the power struggles, internal and external that are so
    > important in the picture? Why, when she's studied Michel Foucault, are
    > her
    > actors so divorced from this struggle?
    > Could it be because there's a 'GAP' in there that shouldn't be there?
    >
    > And so on...
    > Seems to me that good sense-making requires a little more coherence.
    >
    > [Time for bed.]
    >
    > Peter
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: <albert.m.selvin@verizon.com>
    > To: <unrev-II@yahoogroups.com>
    > Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 9:14 PM
    > Subject: Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology
    >
    >
    > >
    > > The text may have sounded that way -- my fault, if so. Take a look
    > at the
    > > many years of field research, both in industrialized and developing
    > > countries, that supports Dervin's reseach, in order to judge its
    > > speciousness and pseudo-ness.
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > "Peter Jones" <ppj@concept67.fsnet.co.uk> on 11/14/2001 03:15:35 PM
    > >
    > > Please respond to unrev-II@yahoogroups.com
    > >
    > > To: <unrev-II@yahoogroups.com>
    > > cc:
    > >
    > > Subject: Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology
    > >
    > >
    > > Al Selvin wrote:
    > > >Brenda Dervin, for example, contrasted a sensemaking
    > > >approach to the persuasion approach. For her, sensemaking is a
    > process
    > > >where people confront obstacles or discontinuities in their
    > progress
    > > >towards some goal; when they hit such obstacles, they cast about
    > for ways
    > > >to understand their situation so that they can design effective
    > movements
    > > >around, through, or away from the obstacles. It has little to do
    > with
    > > >persuasion and much to do with figuring out what's going on and
    > what to
    > do
    > > >in a situation where the normal rules are upset.
    > >
    > > Nope, I'm not persuaded. Based on the text above, it sounds like
    > specious
    > > pseudo-intellectual meaning dodging.
    > >
    > > >much to do with figuring out
    > >
    > > Self-persuasion? Justified beliefs, new or old?
    > > It's still a form of persuasion.
    > > How rational and sophisticated it is is entirely dependent on the
    > players
    > > and the context, but it's still persuasion.
    > >
    > > But then that's just my opinion, you don't have to be convinced.
    > >
    > > Cheers,
    > > Peter
    > >
    > >
    > > ----- Original Message -----
    > > From: "Jack Park" <jackpark@thinkalong.com>
    > > To: <unrev-II@yahoogroups.com>
    > > Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 2:43 PM
    > > Subject: Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology
    > >
    > >
    > > > At 09:11 AM 11/14/2001 -0500, Al wrote:
    > > > >I studied communication in grad school in the early 80s. In that
    > field,
    > > > >much of the newer and promising work going on was a reaction
    > *against*
    > a
    > > > >model of communication as persuasion, which had dominated the
    > field in
    > > the
    > > > >previous decades. Brenda Dervin, for example, contrasted a
    > sensemaking
    > > > >approach to the persuasion approach. For her, sensemaking is a
    > process
    > > > >where people confront obstacles or discontinuities in their
    > progress
    > > > >towards some goal; when they hit such obstacles, they cast about
    > for
    > > ways
    > > > >to understand their situation so that they can design effective
    > > movements
    > > > >around, through, or away from the obstacles. It has little to do
    > with
    > > > >persuasion and much to do with figuring out what's going on and
    > what to
    > > do
    > > > >in a situation where the normal rules are upset.
    > > >
    > > > As it turns out, I read TR 74 and was somehow primed for this
    > response,
    > > > which also corresponds to my intuition that seeking truth or
    > making
    > sense
    > > > cannot and should not involve persuasion. It is for this reason
    > that I
    > > > have been thinking that keeping the participants (at least in the
    > non
    > > > face-to-face) dialogs anonymous. I have observed a tendency to
    > play to
    > > > whatever opinions the "expert" (read: big cheese) has to say,
    > while
    > > > conducting meetings with QuestMap. It strikes me that a good
    > facilitator
    > > > ought to have some skills handy for deflecting the force of
    > unwarranted
    > > karma.
    > > >
    > > > Jack
    > > >
    > > >
    > > >
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