Optical Pulsars and Black Arrows: Discoveries as Occasioned Productions

The current article represents a methodological proposal. It seeks to address the question of how one might recognize a discovery as a discovery without knowing in advance what is available to be discovered. We propose a solution and demonstrate it using data from a study previously reported by J. Roschelle (1992) Roschelle, J. 1992. Learning by collaborating: Convergent conceptual change. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2: 235–276. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]. Roschelle investigated 2 students' developing understandings of certain abstract features of Newtonian mechanics while working within a computer-based microworld, the Envisioning Machine. We employ an approach we term discovery as occasioned production to reexamine his data. Such an approach proceeds stepwise from the identification of some matter discovered, working backward to see just where that matter entered the conversation and then, finally, tracing from that point forward to illuminate how the proposal for a possible discovery was ultimately transformed into a discovery achieved. The notion of “evident vagueness,” borrowed from H. Garfinkel, M. Lynch, and D. Livingston's (1981) Garfinkel, H., Lynch, M. and Livingston, D. 1981. The work of discovering science construed with materials from the optically discovered pulsar. Philosophy of Social Science, 11: 131–158. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] account of the discovery of an optical pulsar, emerges as an important feature of our analysis. Following H. Garfinkel (2002) Garfinkel, H. 2002. Ethnomethodology's program: Working out Durkheim's aphorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield..  [Google Scholar], we present our findings as a “tutorial problem” and offer a suggestion for how a program of practice studies in the learning sciences might be pursued.     

Economic Sectors as Discursive Resources for Civil Society Collaboration

This study explores the communication processes of civil society collaboration, with particular attention to the ways in which sectoral differences are managed communicatively and how sectoral differences among members are implicated in the processes of collaboration. Findings from a 10-month qualitative investigation of a civil society collaboration of social service providers indicate that sector differences are discursive resources that people draw upon to make sense of uncertainty and frame arguments. Findings also demonstrate how sector differences are managed communicatively through practices of recognition, resistance, translation, and mediation. This study builds on previous scholarship that conceptualizes civil society collaboration as a series of communicative processes and discursive practices (versus economic or structural characteristics), as well as research that advocates a processual approach to the study of organizational collaboration.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Collaborative Interorganizational Networks Through Client Communication

A hallmark of today’s civil society sector is the prevalence of collaborative interorganizational networks. The purpose of this study is to investigate how collaborative interorganizational network structures affect interactions within client networks, and how this in turn impacts assessments of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness. In particular, we focus on recommendations as key indicators of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness in relation to client networks. We identify client networks of phantom populations as an important but unexamined aspect of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness that warrants further research. We present an empirical investigation of a collaborative interorganizational network of social service agencies working to address the problem of homelessness in Boulder County, Colorado (USA). Findings indicate that organizations with a greater number of connections with other organizations generate more recommendations within client networks. Our study demonstrates a relationship between the degree of connections within a collaborative interorganizational network structure and the recommendations generated with a phantom population.