Working Alone Together — Rhetoric & Composition

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2012 Open Access

Working Alone Together

Clay Spinuzzi The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Mobile professionals can choose to work in offices, executive suites, home offices, or other spaces. But some have instead chosen to work at coworking spaces: open-plan office environments in which they work alongside other unaffiliated professionals for a fee of approximately $250 a month. But what service are they actually purchasing with that monthly fee? How do they describe that service? From an activity theory perspective, what are its object, outcome, and actors? This article reports on a 20-month study that answers such questions.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2012-10-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651912444070
Open Access: OA PDF Green
Topics: genre theory

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (20)

Pihlaja (2022)

Everyday Ethics at the Border: Normative Ethics for the 21st Century

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Randazzo (2022)

Bodies of Proof: COVID-19 and Unwitnessed Remote Work

Technical Communication Quarterly
McNely (2019)

Under Pressure: Exploring Agency–Structure Dynamics with a Rhetorical Approach …

Technical Communication Quarterly
Sharp (2019)

Agency, Authority, and Epideictic Rhetoric: A Case Study of Bottom-Up Organizat…

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Spinuzzi et al. (2019)

“Coworking Is About Community”: But What Is “Community” in Coworking?

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Show all 20 →

Meloncon et al. (2019)

Empirical Research in Technical and Professional Communication: A 5-Year Examin…

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Clayson (2018)

Distributed writing as a lens for examining writing as embodied practice

Technical Communication Quarterly
Mehlenbacher et al. (2018)

Instructional Design for Online Learning Environments and the Problem of Collab…

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Carradini (2018)

An Organizational Structure of Indie Rock Musicians as Displayed by Facebook Usage

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Fraiberg (2017)

Start-Up Nation

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Swarts (2016)

Composing Networks

Written Communication
Wible (2016)

The Prospects for Literacy Studies in the Revival of Rhetorical Education

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Vealey (2016)

The Shape of Problems to Come

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Charney (2015)

Getting to “How Do You Know?” Rather Than “So What?” From “What's New?”

Technical Communication Quarterly
McNely et al. (2015)

Contemporary Research Methodologies in Technical Communication

Technical Communication Quarterly
Spinuzzi (2015)

Toward a Typology of Activities

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Frith (2014)

Social Network Analysis and Professional Practice: Exploring New Methods for Re…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Spinuzzi (2014)

How Nonemployer Firms Stage-Manage Ad Hoc Collaboration: An Activity Theory Analysis

Technical Communication Quarterly
Pigg (2014)

Coordinating Constant Invention: Social Media's Role in Distributed Work

Technical Communication Quarterly
Long et al. (2013)

Legitimizing and Elevating Telework

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (7)

Spinuzzi (2011)

Losing by Expanding

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Gygi et al. (2010)

Productive Tensions and the Regulatory Work of Genres in the Development of an …

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Smagorinsky (2008)

The Method Section as Conceptual Epicenter in Constructing Social Science Resea…

Written Communication
Paretti et al. (2007)

Teaching Technical Communication in an Era of Distributed Work: A Case Study of…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Spinuzzi (2007)

Guest Editor's Introduction: Technical Communication in the Age of Distributed Work

Technical Communication Quarterly

Show all 7 →

GEISLER (2001)

Textual Objects

Written Communication
RUSSELL (1997)

Rethinking Genre in School and Society

Written Communication

Also cites 12 works outside this index ↓

10.1017/CBO9780511809989.018

↗
10.1145/587078.587110

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511809989.013

↗
10.5040/9798216024132

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511809989.020

↗
10.1007/978-1-137-11537-9_10

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511509568.004

↗
10.1016/j.pmcj.2009.12.004

↗
10.7551/mitpress/9780262014595.001.0001

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511809989.007

↗
10.1145/1394445.1394478

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511809989.014

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 598 View in citation network →