[ATTW-L] new issue of Communication Design Quarterly is now published!

Tue Oct 25 14:09:32 UTC 2022

Hi all,I am so happy to announce the publication of issue 10 (3) of
*Communication
Design Quarterly*. This is the second of two special issues (you find the
page for the first one here) devoted to thinking through linkages between
infrastructure and writing, communication, and design. This issue features
a fantastic group of authors doing great work, and you can access a PDF of
the entire issue here
<https://cdq.sigdoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/CDQ_Special-Issue-10-3updated-accessibility.pdf>
and read the abstracts on a page I created for the special issue
<https://cdq.sigdoc.org/special-issue-10-3-writing-infrastructures/>.
Please join me in congratulating these authors on their excellent work. I
hope you enjoy the issue!
Oh, and a quick note...we've been working really hard on making the *CDQ *PDFs
as accessible as possible. I know there are a few things we still need to
work (like semantic structuring), but if any of you have further
suggestions to make future issues more accessible, please let me know!
We're all kind of learning on the job and we want to keep improving in
terms of ensuring accessibility, so honestly...feedback is appreciated.

And here are the abstracts!

Special issue introduction (volume 10, issue 3): Writing infrastructure

by Sarah Read and Jordan Frith

Abstract: This article is the introduction to the second of two *Communication
and Design Quarterly* special issues focused on conceptualizations of
infrastructure. While there are more continuities than differences between
the themes and methodologies of articles in the first and second issues,
this second issue leans towards articles that have taken up infrastructure
as it pertains to writing and rhetoric. This introduction frames the value
of infrastructure as a metaphor for making visible how writing and rhetoric
structure and enact much of our world, especially for writing pedagogy. In
addition, this article concludes by introducing the six contributions in
this issue.
Citational Practices as a site of resistance and radical pedagogy:
 Positioning the Multiply Marginalized and Underrepresented (MMU) Scholar
Database as an infrastructural intervention

by Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq and Jordan Frith

Abstract: Discursive infrastructures are forms of writing that remain
mostly invisible but shape higher-level practices built upon their base.
This article argues that citational practices are a form of discursive
infrastructure that are bases that shape our work. Most importantly, we
argue that the infrastructural base built through citation practices is in
a moment of breakdown as increasing amounts of people call for more just
citational practices that surface multiply marginalized and
underrepresented (MMU) scholar voices. Consequently, this article both
theorizes citations as infrastructure while also focusing on a case study
of the MMU scholar database to help build a more equitable and socially
just disciplinary infrastructure
The text-privileging infrastructures of academic journals

by Carrie Gilbert

Abstract: There is a gap in the academic literature examining how visual
elements enhance verbal communication. We intuitively know that a
well-placed graph or diagram can help get a complex point across, but the
“how”s and “why”s remain more art than science. When you look at the
average academic journal, this shortage of visual research is not so
surprising. Despite all the urgent dialog in recent years about
multimodalities and visual literacy, the publishing process makes it very
difficult to challenge this “text first” status quo.
“It must be a system thing:” Information infrastructure genres as sites of
inequity

by Dana Comi

Abstract: Drawing on qualitative data collected from program participants
in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC), I show how federal government assistance information
infrastructure often does not remediate, and instead exacerbates, existent
inequalities. I use the example of WIC’s Approved Product List (APL) to
show how the APL, as a genre that’s part of WIC’s information
infrastructure, contributes to a hyper-standardized benefit redemption
process that increases visibility and vulnerability for program
participants. This article argues that increased attention to the genres
that make up information infrastructures may help to better locate sites of
inequity like the APL, and better understand how systemic/structural
problems perpetuate infrastructurally.
Making infrastructure into nature: How documents embed themselves into the
bodies of oysters

by Ryan Weber

Abstract: This article contributes to a growing research area in writing
studies that examines how documents perform infrastructure functions. The
article uses document analysis and interviews to examine the ecology of
documents necessary to establish oyster aquaculture in the state of
Alabama. The results show that performative infrastructural documents exist
in a larger ecology of documents and that they can embed themselves in
natural environments and living creatures. This analysis extends the
analytical framework of infrastructure-based writing study by connecting
writing and infrastructure with the natural world.
A theory of infrastructural rhetoric

by Jonathan Adams

Abstract: This article theorizes infrastructures and their components as
rhetorical objects for analysis and persuasive use. Though the term
infrastructure has been applied broadly to several studies in the social
sciences, writing, technical communication, and technology studies,
infrastructures have yet to be systematically theorized as an active
persuasive consideration for those engaging in communicative practice. This
article makes a case for a taxonomic theoretical understanding and
conceptualization of infrastructure that may lead to new methodological
developments in future research. This theory builds from theories of
infrastructures as relational networks of social interaction around
objects. The article aims to assist the persuasive endeavors of those
engaged in communicative practice in infrastructural settings.
Using situational analysis to reimagine infrastructure

by Mary LeRouge, Clancy Ratliff, and Donnie Johnson Sackey

Abstract: In this article, we ask what it means to think of infrastructure
discursively through situational analysis. First, we consider how
policymakers have historically used writing and rhetoric to redefine,
reframe, and resituate what infrastructure can be in technical documents.
Second, we address the impact of policymakers’ discursive practices on the
spaces and material realities of communities. We view the infrastructural
function of writing “as a conceptual foundation for revealing structures
and foundations of organizations that affect people” (Read, 2019, p. 237).
We use three texts as the space of our discourse mapping: President
Franklin Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chat on the Recovery Program,” the Green New
Deal, and President Joseph Biden’s recently proposed American Jobs Plan.
Through these three cases, we argue that infrastructure has always been
defined in relation to environment. Any definition of infrastructure is
rooted in environment or seeks to change environment. These shifts in
definition have been used strategically to bring more visibility to
marginalized communities and make their concerns central to the concerns of
the United States’ socio-economic agenda. We close with implications for
both communities and policymakers.

-- 

Jordan Frith, Ph.D.

Pearce Professor of Professional Communication

Clemson University

Pronouns: He/Him

Book review editor of the *Journal of Business & Technical Communication*

Editor-in-Chief, *Communication Design Quarterly*

Editor, *The X-Series <https://parlorpress.com/pages/x-series>*, Parlor
Press

My Google Scholar Profile
<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OtvmSE0AAAAJ&hl=en>

My personal website <https://jordanfrith.com/>
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