Rodney J. Clarke School of Computing, Staffordshire University

1. Rodney J. Clarke School of Computing, Staffordshire University Beaconside, Stafford ST 18 0DG, United Kingdom (+44 (0)1785 35 3334 office Ê+44 (0)1785 35 3497 " www.dsl.uow.edu.au/~rclarke/contact.htm 8r.j.clarke@staffs.ac.uk Intertextuality at Work: Large-Scale Structure of Information Systems School of Computing Seminar Series: June 26th, 2002 Blue Theatre, Staffordshire University

2. Agenda • Introduction: Research Problems and Approach • Case Study: ALABS at the Microcomputer Laboratories • Workpractice Theory: Systemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework • Methodological Issues • Systems Use: Workpractice Texts in Context • Workpractice Change: • Individual Elements • Sequence Copying and Elaboration • Intertextuality and Systems

3. IntroductionResearch Problems and Approach

4. IntroductionResearch Problems and Approach (1) • although users of information systems do not have unmediated access to systems features, an elision exists in the literature between features and workpractices • in contrast, systems features are negotiated through the enactment of workpractices in workplaces

5. IntroductionResearch Problems and Approach (2) • failure to recognise the differences between them means that diachronic studies of systems can only be described in terms of acontextual changes to technical features • if we want to study diachronic changes to information systems then this must be done by studying workpractices (pragmatics)

6. IntroductionResearch Problems and Approach (3) • attempt to describe the relationships between organisations and systems • development or utilisation of common theory, methods, and notations without reducing one to the other • provision of a contextual and communicative framework • creation of synoptic and diachronic levels of description

7. IntroductionResearch Problems and Approach (4) • including: • development of a semiotic/contextual framework for workpractices associated with information systems comprising both theory and methods • apply it to a case study of an information system that has been used for a lengthy period of time- greater than the average half-life of an operational information

8. Case StudyALABS at the Microcomputer Laboratories

9. Microcomputer Laboratories High Demand- TES Incident (1998)

10. ü Microcomputer Laboratories Virtual Reality- Physical Facility (1996) ü

11. ALABSAutomated Library And Borrowing System • commissioned in 1986- crucial to supporting MCL day-to-day operations • standalone system for the provision of disk-based software, manuals and hardware to students & staff • used barcode technologies as used in shopping centres and spoken language service encounter genres to realise service transaction Novell Netware Servers ALABS

12. Workpractice TheorySystemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework

13. Workpractice TheorySystemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework • in use an information system consists of many system features negotiated through the enactment of workpractices • apply a composite of two semiotic theories to explain the structure and function of workpractices- referred to as systemic semiotics (Fawcett 1986)

14. Workpractice TheorySystemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework • systemic semiotic workpractice framework utilises: • systemic functional linguistics-a semiotic model of language, and • social semiotics- a general semiotic theory which has developed out of systemic functional linguistics • an exploratory study (Clarke 1996) revealed that both theories may at times be required

15. Workpractice TheorySystemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework • to develop a suitable systemic semiotic workpractice framework requires a detailed understanding of exactly what each of these theorists is claiming • many of these terms are not exact matches- use the concept of theoretical affinities • at certain times we must drop one theory in favour of the other- conditions of use

16. Social Semiotics (Bakhtin, Foucault, Althusser) Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, Martin, Hasan) theoretical affinities Workpractice TheorySystemic Semiotic Workpractice Framework the model itself is a product of discourse discourse texts as product & process text emphasising process tenor relations social subjectivity social context context of culture and situation

17. Workpractice TheoryBakhtin’s Dialogism (Clarke 1997) • using social semiotic theory (Bakhtin), workpractices are considered as having a dialogical relationship to system features • a monologic condition arises when users comply with the discourses negotiated in the workpractice • a dialogic condition arises when users resist and attempt to renegotiate the discourses associated with the workpractice

18. Workpractice TheorySocial Semiotic Theory • incorporated recent social semiotic theory (Foucault, Althusser and Kress) together with dialogism (Bakhtin) to form a descriptive model of workpractices • must be supplemented with compatible semiotic methods- systemic functional linguistics • operational definition of workpractices as one or more texts together with zero or more actions

19. Workpractice TheorySFL Semiotic Model of Language • used Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) theory to provide actual methods for conducting applied linguistic analysis of texts (Halliday 1985) • the Stratal Model of SFL (Martin 1992) is derived in subsequent slides- useful in identifying which strata, systems, and units to consider in a specific study

20. solidary relationship- that is a relationship of unity- between texts and contexts context predicts text, text construes context note the similarity to Hjelmslev’s concepts a major influence for Martin’s reformulation of Halliday Workpractice TheorySFL Context and Text Context Text

21. two types of context recognised by the theory (after Malinowski) Situational Context which provides secific situational ‘values’ to the text Cultural Context which provides a pattern or template that is portable across different situations within a national or organisational culture Workpractice TheorySFL Bi-stratal Organisation of Context Cultural Context SituationalContext Language

22. Situational Context is represented in SFL by Register consisting of field- social action and activities, tenor- who is involved in the language, and mode- how language is used Cultural Context is represented in SFL by Genre text staging involving sequence, selection, and iteration Workpractice TheorySFL Contextual Strata Genre Register Language

23. unlike most semiotic systems, the meanings in language (content) are not directly realised into sounds or letters (expression) language is tristratal; the content (signified) involves meanings and wordings Meanings Wordings Expression Workpractice TheorySFL Tri-stratal Organisation of Language Genre Register

24. meanings of a text are associated with the strata of Discourse Semantics… …are in turn realised in wordings (words and grammar) are associated with the strata of Lexico-grammar …are in turn given expression (sounds and letters) with the strata of Phonology/Graphology Workpractice Theory SFL Language Strata Genre Register Discourse Semantics Lexico-grammar Phonology Graphology

25. while strata are responsible for major language units, metafunctions are responsible for the kinds of meanings simultaneously conveyed in texts: ideational metafunction- concerned with action interpersonal metafunction- concerned with reflection textual metafunction- concerned with connection inter- personal Workpractice TheorySFL Metafunctions Genre Register field Discourse mode tenor Semantics experiential textual Lexico-grammar Transitivity Mood Theme Phonology Graphology

26. resolved in language as two distinct components- experiential meaning: expression of processes and other phenomena in the social world including the speakers’ own consciousness logical meanings: involves the mapping of experiential meanings into language Workpractice TheorySFL Ideational Metafunction Genre Register field Discourse mode tenor Semantics experiential inter- textual personal Lexico-grammar Transitivity Mood Theme Phonology Graphology

27. the metafunction of language by which: social groups are delimited and the individual is identified, represented and reinforced Workpractice TheorySFL Interpersonal Metafunction Genre Register field Discourse mode tenor Semantics experiential inter- textual personal Lexico-grammar Transitivity Mood Theme Phonology Graphology

28. refers to the way the text is organised as a piece of writing Workpractice TheorySFL Textual Metafunction Genre Register field Discourse mode tenor Semantics experiential inter- textual personal Lexico-grammar Transitivity Mood Theme Phonology Graphology

29. Workpractice TheoryAppropriate SFL Methods • stratal SFL model has useful properties, eg. for a given study appropriate linguistic methods can be determined in advance • for workpractices associated with IS, metthods must be selected that emphasise the relationship between a text and its context, rather than the language system • methods associated with the (organisational) of IS are used in the case

30. Methodological Issues

31. Methodological Issues Workpractices: Operational Definition • workpractices are defined in terms of: • one or more texts which can be described by text types (genres), or • zero or more action types described using qualitative sequences formed by direct observation or activity reconstruction • theoretical, methodological and notational similarities between genres and actions are described in Clarke (1999)

32. Methodological Issues Empty Corpus Problem • empty corpus problem (Andersen 1992)- what can you do when you have no language to analyse- exactly the conditions in this project • its partial resolution- is to ask stakeholder- elicit using a probe • transform a potential empty corpus situation into a non-text situation

33. Methodological Issues Work Situations Text Situation (Spoken) Non-text Situation Text Situation (Written)Service Encounter GenreAction Sequence Instructional Procedure Genre

34. Methodological Issues Genre • changed traditional SFL theory of genre: • removed obligatory/optional element distinction and • altered it from crisp to fuzzy formulation- still in progress! • altered the classical notation to show: • differences between successive versions of the same workpractice • similarities between distinct workpractices

35. Methodological Issues Work Situations & Genre

36. Methodological IssuesRegister (1) • field- whats going on • Lexical and Indexical Lexical Items • System Networks • tenor- who is doing it • Power (Equal/Unequal) • Affective Involvement (High/Low) • Contact (Frequent/Occasional)

37. Methodological Issues Register (2) • mode- the role of language • spatial/interpersonal distance (casual conversation/novel) • experiential distance language as action- accompanying the social process / language as relection- constituting the social process

38. Methodological Issues Work Situations & Register

39. System Use: Workpractice Texts in Context

40. ALABS Student Loan

41. Negotiated SeparationStudent Loan Version 1 (a) into new form (b)

42. Workpractice Change: Individual Elements

43. Workpractice ChangeCutting, Pasting, Elaboration (1) • ALABS provides evidence for the purposeful manipulation of individual genres associated with workpractices • three basic operators were operationally identified: • cutting: the removal of genre elements • pasting: the addition of genre elements • elaboration: both of the above

44. Workpractice ChangeCutting, Pasting, Elaboration (2) • the evidence for purposeful manipulation of genres: • changes are minimal and ‘optimal’ • some genres appear to change together • with respect to information systems genre re-use is preferred to genre reinvention- it may also be a general mechanism for genre change

45. Workpractice ChangeCutting, Pasting, Elaboration (3) • implications for end-user programming practices: • was the programmer so intimately familiar with the code that they knew exactly which lines to add/remove • or was the programmer so intimately familiar with the workpractice that they knew which code implemented which genre element

46. Element PastingStudent Loan (a) Version 2, (b) Version 3

47. Workpractice Change: Sequence Copying and Elaboration

48. Sequence Copying(a) Student Loan Version 1 (b) Append

49. Sequence Elaboration(a) Student Append (b) Student Renewal Chronemic

50. Sequence Elaboration(a) Student Loan Version 2/3 (b) Move Chronemic