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The gap between instruction (plan) and situated action: A challenge to semiotics?

  • Wolff-Michael Roth EMAIL logo
From the journal Semiotica

Abstract

In this study, I describe a potential challenge to semiotics, which exists in the fact that no interpretation of an instruction (text) can get us closer to doing what the instructional text describes. I provide a praxeological description of a situation in a software development firm where the instructions (rules) for a particular type of meeting are inscribed on the whiteboard in front of which the meetings were held. I discuss the gap between instructions and the behavior they describe and the moral order of praxis that is not inscribed in instructions.

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Published Online: 2018-2-28
Published in Print: 2018-3-26

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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