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March 30, 2005
That Postmodern Thing Again
In thinking about how structural observations are more relevant when you approach the work with a question about the function of a structure… (and really misrepresenting Burke).
This really just reads like the postmodern debate of form over/versus function – “the ‘form’ of the network and the ‘content’ of the network … the content is given meaning/context by the form.”
If the function of a structure is simply how the structure will work to do (or support) the job it’s intended to do, can we really “trace” the form to a state that is shaped by the structure?
The function of the structure (holes and all) is merely a question of how the design will work to do the job its supposed to do. The “do” is the way people and information will do the tasks they have to do. It’s really the functions that we’re concerned with – the actions for which a person or piece of information is fitted, used or responsible, or for which they/it exists. The form that we are concerned with really refers to what the person within the structure will see and feel, avoiding the suggestion that the structural form is providing meaning to what is there now and what will be there in the future.
See, and here I thought I’d escape a semester without having to slog through this postmodern/post-postmodern soup.
Posted by mfrascie at March 30, 2005 10:12 PM