[iDC] More on Contours and Boundaries in Participation

[Nancy White]

Beka, I'd love to know more about what you are suggesting. IN our 
research for "Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for community" 
(Etienne Wenger, John Smith and I) we also identified 
"multimembership" as both an opportunity and challenge which feels 
related to the point you are making about a generalized praise for 
participation. What interventions are you suggesting?

I think this ties back to how we look towards the future of education 
where we a) don't (over)romanticize our favorite concepts but also b) 
understand where radical shifts may or may not be required. If we 
hide behind "generalized, unfocused participation," what might be the 
consequences for learning and education?

At 10:32 AM 6/10/2010, you wrote:
>And so we pass on politesse, and draw a line in the sand. We aren't 
>interested in raising questions, exploring models of participation 
>or experiments in collaboration. We take a position: that 
>participationism plagues us. More than dismantling or distributing 
>power, we've invisibilized and extended it. An intervention is in 
>order, and we offer practices and programming that contribute to 
>this conversation: foregrounding the contours and boundaries 
>inherent in participation, the contradictions and conflicts in a 
>fruitful collaboration.


Nancy White | Full Circle Associates | Connecting communities online
nancyw at fullcirc.com | +1 206 517 4754 | GMT - 8 |skype - choconancy | 
Twitter NancyWhite
http://www.fullcirc.com/