Project Update: A Rhetoric of Management

My project explores the many ways composition teachers can use Facebook (and MySpace) in first-year writing. In many cases, the arguments exhibit an interesting tension on the subject of whether to bring these sites into the classroom as serious objects of study. On one side of the discussion are educators, scholars, and other concerned folk who claim that these social network sites (SNS) are strictly social, and therefore do not allow participants to "see beyond their social walls." But, on the other side, are economists -- gasp!-- and other such ilk who believe in the power of technology to impact the way we teach, think, and learn. My project does not attempt to offer a definitive answer to these conversations, but rather to supplement them by offering some insight into how first-year writing, specifically, can not only benefit from Facebook in the classroom, but also allow students to engage with their world socially and critically.

The project focuses primarily on the "rhetoric" of Facebook, which I am calling a "rhetoric of management." Since Facebook and SNS require users to post a profile that identifies themselves, this profile becomes the site of interaction. It's not just one page to get to other pages, or a list of signifiers; instead, this profile not only evolves and changes over time, but also enables the interaction and those changes in and of itself. In short, it's the Golden Ticket to the factory. A "rhetoric of management," then, refers to the (often) unseen processes and behaviors that go into changing, updating, or managing, this profile. While my colleagues may cringe at the business language of my term, at the same time it is not my own, per se (danah boyd calls SNS profiles sites for identity management) and despite its connotations, I think it accurately, and effectively, describes what users do on a daily basis.

Truly incorporating this rhetoric into our classrooms means that we have to reframe, and re-focus, a few of our understandings about management. I am recasting "management" to refer to those hidden, or invisible, processes that encompass surveillance, invisible audiences, sociocultural engagement, taste/class/race, and, finally, resistance. While Facebook blatantly creates, and maintains, a particular taste based on its interface, and while a lot of problematic stuff happens within its confines, at the same time educators cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand about it. But instead of just bringing it into the classroom as a site for analysis and critique -- useful things that should also come up -- we should find ways of learning from, and with, Facebook. This project seeks to find ways to do that, ultimately toward more active, engaged, and critical ends.