Article published in:
Interacting with Objects: Language, materiality, and social activity
Edited by Maurice Nevile, Pentti Haddington, Trine Heinemann and Mirka Rauniomaa
[Not in series 186] 2014
► pp. 319–338

Incidental and essential objects in interaction

Paper documents in journalistic work

| University of Gothenburg
| Uppsala University
A large body of work points to the special status of paper documents in the ecology of objects in the workplace. In this chapter, we revisit this work, focusing on the role of paper in the everyday work of journalists. We examine three quite different empirical examples where paper documents feature in interaction, supporting, in turn, the structuring of conversation, collaboration and inter-organisational interaction. Based on these examples we argue for a distinction between object-focused interactions and object-implicating interactions. In addition, and related to the dual nature of documents being both material objects and carriers of information, we identify an analytic dimension along which interactions with objects can be placed, that from incidental to essential.
Published online: 12 September 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.186.14wei
Cited by

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 february 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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