Technical Communication Quarterly Jul 2023

Infrastructural Storytelling: A Methodological Approach for Narrating Environmental (In)justice in Technical and Professional Communication

Dustin W. Edwards San Diego State University ; Bridget Gelms San Francisco State University ; Rich Shivener York University

Abstract

This article offers infrastructural storytelling as a methodological approach attuned to the emplaced dynamics of digital infrastructure. Countering the clean progress narratives of sustainability reports in the technology sector, this approach follows digital infrastructure to two locations: San Francisco, California (Google) and Toronto, Ontario (Digital Realty). Infrastructural storytelling explicates how physical infrastructures produce uneven social, political, and economic realities by investing in some ways of life over others.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2023-07-03
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2023.2210198
Open Access
Closed
Topics
professional writing multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Weech (2025)
    “That’s What You’re Supposed to Do on Twitter”: Emotion, Affect, and Positivity…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Dighton et al. (2025)
    Localizing with GAI in the Archives: Exploring Practitioner Attitudes on Challe…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Hopkins (2025)
    A Sense of Direction: Rhetoric, Energy, and Infrastructure
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Hopkins (2024)
    A Study in Revolution
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (11)

  1. Ehrenfeld (2020)
    “Sharing a World with Others”: Rhetoric’s Ecological Turn and the Transformatio…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Frith (2020)
    Technical Standards and a Theory of Writing as Infrastructure
    Written Communication
  3. Riley-Mukavetz (2020)
    Developing a Relational Scholarly Practice: Snakes, Dreams, and Grandmothers
    College Composition and Communication
  4. Jones (2020)
    Metaphor 3: Transforming: Coalitional Learning in the Contact Zones: Inclusion …
    College English
  5. Edwards (2020)
    Digital Rhetoric on a Damaged Planet: Storying Digital Damage as Inventive Resp…
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Show all 11 →
  1. Jones (2017)
    Rhetorical Narratives of Black Entrepreneurs
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Small (2017)
    (Re)Kindle
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Jones (2016)
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    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Powell (2012)
    2012 CCCC Chair’s Address: Stories Take Place: A Performance in One Act
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Grabill (2003)
    On divides and interfaces: Access, class, and computers
    Computers and Composition
  6. Rude (1997)
    Environmental Policy Making and the Report Genre
    Technical Communication Quarterly
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CrossRef global citation count: 10 View in citation network →

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