Examining Methectic Technical Communication in an Urban Planning Comic Book

ABSTRACT

Technical communication research has relied heavily on participatory, user-focused strategies as well as “participative”, posthuman frameworks. Both research methodologies have various strengths, yet also have been critiqued for underplaying the role of human and non-human agency (respectively) in rhetorical situations. Through an analysis of an urban planning comic book, I suggest that turning to the Greek concept of methexis – or “participation” – may help technical communication researchers bridge posthuman and user-centered investigative approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual rhetoric/visualization techniques
• Posthuman agency
• service Learning
• research methods
• methexis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Kim et al., (2008), Sauer (2018), Scott (2008), Sun (2006).

2. Clinkenbeard (2020), Henry (2009), Mara and Hawk (2010).

3. For instance, posthuman lenses such as actor-network theory, assemblage theory, and new materialism all showcase how human and nonhuman agents comingle within networks.

4. I should stress that Rose and Walton present both concerns as well as opportunities with regard to posthumanism and social justice research.

5. In Plato’s (1892a) Parmenides, Socrates also asserts that things can be similar or dissimilar to one another by the degree they “participate” or “partake” in being “like” or “unlike.” For example, Socrates notes that his right side is different from his left side, his front different from his back, and his upper body different from his lower body; yet they are similar in that these disparate pieces participate in the makeup of a human body (p. 48).

6. Warner (1985) asserts that the Greeks did not distinguish “between Styx as a waterfall by whom the gods swear their oaths, Styx as the daughter of Oceanus the river and of Tethys, who lives in the sea, or Styx as the mother of Nike, goddess of victory and of Bia (Force)” (p. 70).

7. Characters’ speech in SMAPL is often punctuated by two periods.

8. Albert Lea is a small town about 110 miles from the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul.

9. This sentiment echoes precisely what Batson voiced as being his top priority when helping to create the document, insisting that “I wanted the SMAPL to connect with everyone from ages 8 to 80” (as quoted in Rupersburg, 2017). In this way, much as Jacobs (2013, 2007a, 2007b) and Yu (2015) have noted, comics can act as sponsors of literacy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fernando Sánchez

Fernando Sánchez is an Assistant Professor of Professional Writing at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN. He teaches courses on diverse publics, grant writing, and spatial rhetorics. His work has appeared in Technical Communication, Composition Studies, WPA, Pedagogy, Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, Computers and Composition, JTWC and the WAC Journal.