Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2012

User Agency, Technical Communication, and the 19th-Century Woman Bicyclist

Sarah Hallenbeck University of North Carolina Wilmington

Abstract

This article considers how users employ extraorganizational technical communication to reshape technologies, both materially and symbolically, even after these technologies enter into common use. Specifically, I analyze how women bicyclists of the 1890s authored instructional materials to complicate gendered and classed assumptions about users implicit in manufacturer-produced texts. I argue that technical communicators, in their teaching and research, should consider the role that extraorganizational technical communication plays in generating vital and lasting cultural changes.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2012-10-01
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2012.686846
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
teacher development technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (22)

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  6. Edenfield et al. (2019)
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  7. Petersen et al. (2018)
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  8. Carradini (2018)
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  9. Kimball (2017)
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  10. Peter (2017)
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  11. Kimball (2017)
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  12. Petersen et al. (2016)
    Using Antenarrative to Uncover Systems of Power in Mid-20th Century Policies on…
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  13. Moeller et al. (2016)
    Food Fights: Cookbook Rhetorics, Monolithic Constructions of Womanhood, and Fie…
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  14. Rohrer-Vanzo et al. (2016)
    Technical Communication in Assembly Instructions: An Empirical Study to Bridge …
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  15. Frost (2016)
    Apparent Feminism as a Methodology for Technical Communication and Rhetoric
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  16. White et al. (2016)
    Are We “There” Yet? The Treatment of Gender and Feminism in Technical, Business…
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  17. Petersen (2014)
    Redefining the Workplace: The Professionalization of Motherhood through Blogging
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CrossRef global citation count: 26 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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