Postmodernism charges that sociological methods project ways of thinking and being from the past onto the future, and that sociological forms of presentation are rhetorical defenses of ideologies. Postmodernism contends that sociological theory presents reified constructs no more based in reality than are fictional accounts. Kenneth Burke's logology predates and adequately addresses postmodernism's valid charges against sociology. At the same time, logology avoids the idealistic tendencies and ethical pitfalls of radical forms of postmodernist deconstruction, which acknowledge neither pretextual and extratextual worlds nor the ways in which experience is embodied. While not fully articulated, Burke's logology gives primacy to an embodied, social world prior to text (Body-as-World). Sociology can strengthen both its theoretical arsenal and its response to postmodernism by reacknowledging and reclaiming Burke's logology.
Chemical Engineering courses are often difficult for students. Among the multitude of reasons accounting for this difficulty are communication issues-what scholar I. A. Richards would call "stud[ies] of misunderstanding and its remedies 1 ." That is, questions arise such as: what communication "works" for students?; what communication is ineffective in helping students learn?; and how does communication contribute to the overall learning environment in which students must operate? To answer these questions, the following study is being conducted. This investigation seeks to use ethnographic research (study by immersion) to identify an organizational communication culture for an introductory chemical engineering classroom. Additionally, the study will identify how students and the instructor work within the culture they are constructing to achieve the syllabus goals of "develop[ing] basic skills of chemical engineering analysis," "learn[ing] the language of chemical engineering," and "hav[ing] some fun 2 ." Finally, the ways that male and female students affect and are affected by the culture will be explored. II. Literature Review An organization can be defined as the "interlocked actions of a collectivity [a group] 3 ." Pettigrew 4 described culture as "the system of publicly and collectively accepted meanings operating for a given group at a given time. This system…interprets a people's own situation to themselves." Alternatively, Wood 5 defines culture as the "structures and practices that uphold a particular social order by legitimizing certain values, expectations, meanings, and patterns of behavior."
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