Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 1 Critical Issues in Information Systems BUSS 951 Lecture 10 Language in the Workplace

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 2 Notices (1) General As mentioned last lecture, Assignment 2 results will be available in week 11 Assignment 3 was put up on the web during the first week of the holidays- please download it Please check that your Assignment 1 mark is correctly recorded, current marks are available on the departmental notice board and pick up assignments if you have not yet done so BUSS951 is supported by a website (available from Tomorrow), where you can find out the latest Notices get Lecture Notes, Tutorial Sheets, Assignments etc

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 3 Notices (2) we will now not be conducting seminars were I check to see your understanding of material you should have read we will be giving focused seminars with a view to you completing your third assignment which concerns language in the workplace I will now give you a set of the readings that you should be undertaking that are relevant until the end of the course… … feel free to raise questions about these as needed during the seminar slot or during consultation times

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 4 Notices (3) Relevant Readings Week 10 #13: Venn, C. (1984) #15: Innis, R. E. (1985) #16: Volosinov, V. N. (1973) #17: Dore, J. (1995) #21: Andersen, P. B. & B. Homqvist (1988) Week 11 #22: Kress (1985) #23: Eggins (1994) #24: Hasan (1985)

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 5 Agenda (1) in previous lectures, we have looked at views which theorise office work in terms of action and human communication in this next block of lectures we will look at a semiotic model of communication called systemic functional linguistics and its extension into a general form of semiotics called social semiotics (your third assignment is based on these concepts) in this lecture we will lay down some of the communication concepts that will be exemplified in the remainder of the course…

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 6 Agenda (2) we start by first summarising some points about human communication as distinct from ‘information’… …we then look at some general points about communication and its application to IS/IT… …then we look at the amasing and unique contribution made by Bakhtin

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 7 Communication General Points

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 8 Communication in the ‘Age of Information’ in the ‘age of information’ communication appears to be everything our problems in (western) society appear to based on bad communication countless experts trying to fix communication problems most jobs require communication skills; promotion demands skills in it

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 9 Communication Object and Process if communication is so important what is it? communication appears to be object- like; a noun or a thing but rather than being an object- it is actually a process

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 10 Communication Definition has Changed over Time 19th Century: “communication” = ‘lines of communication’ for example roads, canals, railways 20th Century: “communication” = ‘the development of other means of passing and maintaining social contact... [and now mainly refers] to media

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 11 Communication Meaning communication is about meaning rather than information include such things as attributes, social relations, individual feelings, social positioning of the sender and receiver as well as things we think of as information: statements about the physical and social world everything that has cultural significance enters into communication used here

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 12 Communication Production & Consumption of Meaning communication is about the production and consumption of meaning in actual process of communication need to look at the consumers of meaning and to their activity in this process as much as to producers of meaning

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 13 Communication Socially and Culturally Constituted communication never involves ‘just’ individuals expressing ‘their’ meanings the meanings are produced and consumed by individuals who are already socially and culturally formed these ‘individuals’ draw on the meanings of their culture and social group

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 14 Communication Not ‘Just Sharing’ communication is much more, and very different from, ‘sharing meaning’ or ‘mutual construction of meaning’ societies consist of multiplicities of social and cultural groupings interactions between and across these groupings are likely to involve contradiction and contestation, as much as they are likely to involve sharing

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 15 Communication Difference & Resolution of Difference the processes of communication are likely to be based on difference and on the ‘resolution of difference’ at one and the same time

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 16 Communication One Possible Definition “the point is that the processes of communication always take place in a specific social and cultural setting, never simply between you and me just as individuals; and the structures of power, or authority, as well as the structures of solidarity, exert their influence on the participants” Kress ed/ (1988), 4-5

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 17 Communication Rethinking Organisations Try to think about Organisations this way... What conclusions might we reach about organisations if we apply these ideas? How is this similar or different different to how the IS discipline thinks about organisations

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 18 Communication Rethinking IS/IT Try to think about IS this way... What conclusions might we reach about information systems and information technology if we apply these ideas? How is this similar or different different to how the IS discipline thinks about IS/IT?

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 19 Communication Rethinking Development Try to think about IS Development this way... What conclusions might we reach about IS/IT Development if we apply these ideas? How is this similar or different different to how the IS discipline thinks about IS/IT Development?

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 20 Communication Rethinking the Profession Try to think about IS Profession this way... What conclusions might we reach about the Profession if we apply these ideas? How is this similar or different different to how the IS discipline thinks about itself?

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 21 Bakhtin

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 22 Bakhtin Interests Mikhail Bakhtin ( ) was writing at the time of Stalin in the 1920s his greatest works involved studies of the ‘novel’- which is a relatively recent literary form so why are we interested in his work if he was writing so long ago about works of fiction?

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 23 Bakhtin Interests well in order to understand about ‘novels’, Bakhtin needed to: understand about authorship, but in order to understand about authorship, he needed to understand about writing, and in order to understand writing he had to understand language, meaning etc...

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 24 Bakhtin Interests and the Uptake of Ideas Bakhtin developed an innovative and dynamic perception of language and meaning a strange set of circumstances in Russia and in the West has led to Bakhtin becoming an extremely influential thinker in many areas of the humanities

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 25 Bakhtin Uptake of Ideas at the time Bakhtin was writing, there was enormous political turmoil in Russia his ideas were not available for translation into English until the late 1970s some of his work has been lost, most of it published years after his death

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 26 Bakhtin Uptake of Ideas this timing was crucial- during the 1970s Western theorists were, and still are, concerned with meaning and language eg. ‘failure’ of structuralist linguistics and the emergence of new approaches like deconstruction

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 27 Bakhtin Questions of Authorship he was an extremely strange and weird man! he had developed a ‘circle’ or discussion group which included amongst others two other authors: Medvedev ( ) Voloshinov (1884/5-1936)

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 28 Bakhtin Questions of Authorship both Medvedev and Voloshinov had authored many books as well until in 1973 it was claimed that Bakhtin had actually authored their books as well and published them under their names

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 29 Bakhtin Questions of Authorship this is actually not surprising because Russia under Stalin was a very dangerous place to live and write Medvedev was actually killed during the Stalin purges which saw millions of Russians executed

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 30 Bakhtin Ideas about Language

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 31 Bakhtin Ideas about Language unifying concern of all the texts written by Bakhtin and/or Volosinov, and Medvedev is the nature of discourse discourse = language use but it is not about language as a self- contained conceptual system found in traditional linguistics

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 32 Bakhtin Ideas about Language in fact Bakhtin wrote a number of critiques about formalism and structuralism in linguistics Bakhtin referred to traditional, abstract linguistic accounts as monologic

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 33 Bakhtin Ideas about Language by monologic Bakhtin means that traditional linguistics: attempts to account for discourse as if it consisted of only ‘single meanings’ viewed traditional linguistics as a political exercise concerned with control over language

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 34 Bakhtin Ideas about Language any monologic view of language, fails to account for what Bakhtin called ‘living utterances’: the active, creative capacity of language the always evaluative nature of meaning social subjectivity- relationship between language and our consciousness- our sense of self is social, not natural or innate

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 35 Creative Capacity of Language

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 36 Bakhtin Creative Capacity of Language evaluative nature of discourse makes context absolutely essential should not treat language as words in a dictionary which can only have a meaning potential instead texts require actualized meaning of the words used in a specific situation

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 37 Bakhtin Creative Capacity of Language Example: “That’s a fine view” has many potential or possible meanings but only as uttered in a particular context can we know which meanings are being realised

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 38 Bakhtin Creative Capacity of Language discourse- the production of actualized meaning- can only be studied adequately as a communication event......as responsive interaction between at least two social beings

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 39 Bakhtin Creative Capacity of Language language exists on the boundary between human consciousnesses, between a self and an other this responsive interaction between speakers that constitutes the creative capacity of language to produce new meaning

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 40 Evaluative Nature of Meaning

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 41 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning every utterance generates a response in the other who receives it, even if that response is only inner speech but, the initial utterance already anticipates that active response in the receiving other and so shapes itself to take it into account

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 42 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning but the ‘initial utterance’ is never actually the first word in any real sense an ‘initial utterance’ is moulded not just by the future response but also as an ‘answer’ to all relevant previous utterances

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 43 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning Bakhtin refers to this aspect of the nature of discourse as dialogic the dialogic nature of discourse accounts for the constant generation of new meanings produces a complex understanding of time

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 44 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning meaning is produced or realised only in the specific utterance of an actual communicative event but, every utterance is also a link in the continuous chain of other utterances an utterance is both a moment and part of a long evolution of social change- intertextuality

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 45 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning a word is a two-sided act the product of a reciprocal relationship between speaker and listener, addresser and addressee not only does an utterance call forth or provoke a new word, it creates itself in anticipation of that response

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 46 Bakhtin Evaluative Nature of Meaning every word and utterance, looks back to the word it is answering, and looks forward to the anticipated word it will partly determine in advance

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 47 Social Subjectivity

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 48 Social Subjectivity Bakhtin then goes on to consider the social basis of meanings for Bakhtin language and thought are intertwined- language cannot exist without thought nor can thought exist without language both are social not individual

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 49 Social Subjectivity always and in all situations, the ‘individual’ (user, worker, manager, developer) is implicated in and subject to the social construction of meaning Dore #12 provides an example of how meanings must be social...

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 50 Social Subjectivity Example imagine a new born child in a cot, the child is being watched by its parents the child stretches its arm out the parents may interprete this action by the child as a request for a toy...

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 51 Social Subjectivity Example the parents will probably give the toy to the child, interpreting the childs action with an already socially determined meaning the childs behaviour is being interpreted as a request for a toy

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 52 Social Subjectivity Example the child is just as likely wanting to get comfortable in the cot none-the-less it does not take a small child long to learn that when they stretch their arm out, something is likely to be given to them

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 53 Social Subjectivity Example the child is actually realising the power of communication, although it probably cannot do this with language (paralinguistics) what is important in this example is not that the child learns that there is this paralinguistic resource it can use,....

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 54 Social Subjectivity Example but rather that these paralinguistic and ultimately linguistic resources are always social the childs stretch is already interpreted as a meaningful communicative act by the parents the child has already entered the world of language as social

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 55 Social Subjectivity language is not about how expressive we are, language is not created inside ourselves thats just the way that it is viewed in a Western culture that emphases ‘individualism’

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 56 Social Subjectivity rather as Bakhtin points out: children do not acquire language, but its actually the opposite in fact, the startling conclusion is that language acquires children!

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 57 Social Subjectivity language is not owned by us, language is ultimately social, it is something that is between us not within us and just as language is social, so to is our own conscious, our individuality!

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 58 Conclusions

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 59 Summary we have introduced some of the radical theories of Bakhtin his theories were an attempt to understand the Novel but they have had a profound and recent influence over the social sciences

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 60 Summary I propose that these ideas have the capacity to change the IS discipline: away from mentalistic and machine-like views of humans, a result of applying the subject of psychology- the ‘individual’ to a theory in which our actions and our subjectivity can be understood as meaningful and social in nature!

Clarke, R. J (2001) L951-10: 61 Next Week we start to apply the ideas of Bakhtin to understanding organisations we start to look at ideas based on Bakhtin (social semiotics) show how they are compatible with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)