Multimodal processes of joint remembering in complex collaborative activities

Bietti, L.M. & Baker, M.J. (2018). Multimodal processes of joint remembering in complex collaborative activities. In M. Meade, A. Barnier, P. van Bergen, C. B. Harris & J. Sutton (eds.), Collaborative remembering: Theories, Research and Applications (pp. 177-196). New York: Oxford University Press.

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to expand research on joint remembering into real- world complex collaborative activities at the workplace. In order to do so, we aim to show how a substantial part of the joint remembering in complex collaborative activities takes place outside the verbal domain. We illustrate how the interweaving of verbal, corporal, social, and material resources supports joint remembering of relevant aspects of work projects during group interactions. Here we focus on those interactional sequences concerning past actions and events, in relation to work projects, that are triggered by questions acting as reminders. We call such sequences collaborative remembering sequences (CRSs). Our qualitative microanalysis of CRSs deals with cases of “real world” organizational remembering. The group interactions that we present as illustrative examples to support our theoretical standpoint were taken from a corpus collected on the basis of two naturalistic studies following a joint remembering collaborative design that we conducted with architects and animation designers at their workplaces.