Tactical Approaches to Technical Communication
Reimagining Institutions, Transforming Society
Published on 1. June 2025
Book
Hardback
324 pages
979-8-8558-0206-1 (ISBN)
Description
Delves into how individuals tactically exist within communicative systems, carving out spaces for themselves in places they don't necessarily fit.
In 1984, Michel de Certeau described the terms "strategies" as how institutions communicate their wants/demands/desires and "tactics" as how individuals navigate these potentially hostile, unwelcoming systems. A little over two decades later, Miles A. Kimball solidified the idea of tactical technical communication, laying the foundations for a new area of inquiry and scholarship. Today, many academics and researchers have imbued the concept of tactical technical communication with their own ideas and perspectives. This essay collection spotlights a meaningful diversity of tactical technical communication scholarship, exploring topics like the feminist punk magazine BIKINI KILL, the phenomenon of copwatching, the usage of fictional narratives in technical writing courses, and the challenges of LBGTQ+ visibility in local libraries. In many ways, the contributors are partaking in their own forms of tactical communication as they carve out spaces for themselves and their ideas within the academic discourse.
In 1984, Michel de Certeau described the terms "strategies" as how institutions communicate their wants/demands/desires and "tactics" as how individuals navigate these potentially hostile, unwelcoming systems. A little over two decades later, Miles A. Kimball solidified the idea of tactical technical communication, laying the foundations for a new area of inquiry and scholarship. Today, many academics and researchers have imbued the concept of tactical technical communication with their own ideas and perspectives. This essay collection spotlights a meaningful diversity of tactical technical communication scholarship, exploring topics like the feminist punk magazine BIKINI KILL, the phenomenon of copwatching, the usage of fictional narratives in technical writing courses, and the challenges of LBGTQ+ visibility in local libraries. In many ways, the contributors are partaking in their own forms of tactical communication as they carve out spaces for themselves and their ideas within the academic discourse.
Reviews / Votes
"This book offers many thoughtful illustrations of the value of tactical technical communication. I can see using this book in undergraduate and graduate technical communication courses." - Derek Van Ittersum, coauthor of Writing Workflows: Beyond Word Processing"Tactical Approaches to Technical Communication is long overdue. It's great to see such a wide array of tactical technical communication perspectives on display here." - Derek M. Sparby, author of Memetic Rhetorics: Toward a Toolkit for Ethical Meming
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Illustrations
4 Figures; 9 Tables, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
678 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-0206-1 (9798855802061)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Hayley McCullough | Hilary A. Sarat-St. Peter | Miles A. Kimball
Tactical Approaches to Technical Communication
Reimagining Institutions, Transforming Society
E-Book
06/2025
State University of New York Press
€38.99
Available for download
Persons
Hayley McCullough is Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Digital Media at New Mexico Tech. Hilary A. Sarat-St. Peter is Associate Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Columbia College in Chicago. Miles A. Kimball is a recently retired Professor from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is the coauthor, with Derek G. Ross, of Document Design, Second Edition: From Process to Product in Professional Communication, also published by SUNY Press.
Content
Introduction
Miles A. Kimball, Hilary A. Sarat-St. Peter, and Hayley McCullough
Part 1: Reimagining Institutions
1. In-Plain-Sight Tactics: One-to-One Advocacy in the Workplace
Jessica McCaughey and Brian Fitzpatrick
2. LGBTQ+ Programming at the Local Library: Tactical Technical Communication as a Way of Addressing Gaps in Community Resources and Representation
Dannea Nelson and Emily January
3. Exposing the "Actively Enforced" Policy: Tactical Technical Disruptake for Rhetorical Deinstitutionalization
Walker P. Smith
4. #WearAMaskNY Public Service Announcements: Tactical Technical Communication During a Global Pandemic
Shannon N. Sarantakos and Sara C. Doan
5. Grassroots Activism and Tactical Communities: Examining the Poor People's Corporation in Mississippi in the 1960s and 1970s
Don Unger
6. The Streets Have Eyes: "Copwatching" as Tactical Citizen Engagement with Police Policy
Michael Knievel
7. Tactical Tech Comm and Failures in Crowdsourcing Mass Production
John T. Sherrill
8. Tactical User Research: How UX Can (Re)Shape Organizations
Guiseppe Getto
9. The Motivations of the Marginalized: Identifying and Navigating Hegemonic Factors in Petroleum Risk Communication
Joseph E. Williams
Part 2: Transforming Society
10. Engaging Eurocentric Legacies in de Certeau's Thinking Through a Self-Reflection on "Queering Tactical Technical Communication"
Avery Edenfield and Steve Holmes
11. DIY Instructions in BIKINI KILL: A Feminist Historiographical Approach to Tactical Technical Communication
John L. Seabloom-Dunne
12. Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Case for Metical Technical Communication
Kevin Van Winkle
13. Armed Propaganda and the Ethics of Horrorism: Tactical Communiques from the Weather Underground
Brad Lucas
14. Hospitality at the End of the World: An Ideological Rhetorical Criticism of Tactical Technical Communication in The Prepper Journal
Ryan Cheek
15. Marx in the Digital Age: The Critical Role of Tactical Technical Communication in Contemporary Humanism
Sandy Brack
16. The Narrative Construction of Social Justice in Technical Communication Pedagogy
Tracy Bridgeford
17. Finding Agency Through Tactical Technical Communication: Privacy and Data Surveillance
Sarah Young and Jason Pridmore
Contributors
Index
Miles A. Kimball, Hilary A. Sarat-St. Peter, and Hayley McCullough
Part 1: Reimagining Institutions
1. In-Plain-Sight Tactics: One-to-One Advocacy in the Workplace
Jessica McCaughey and Brian Fitzpatrick
2. LGBTQ+ Programming at the Local Library: Tactical Technical Communication as a Way of Addressing Gaps in Community Resources and Representation
Dannea Nelson and Emily January
3. Exposing the "Actively Enforced" Policy: Tactical Technical Disruptake for Rhetorical Deinstitutionalization
Walker P. Smith
4. #WearAMaskNY Public Service Announcements: Tactical Technical Communication During a Global Pandemic
Shannon N. Sarantakos and Sara C. Doan
5. Grassroots Activism and Tactical Communities: Examining the Poor People's Corporation in Mississippi in the 1960s and 1970s
Don Unger
6. The Streets Have Eyes: "Copwatching" as Tactical Citizen Engagement with Police Policy
Michael Knievel
7. Tactical Tech Comm and Failures in Crowdsourcing Mass Production
John T. Sherrill
8. Tactical User Research: How UX Can (Re)Shape Organizations
Guiseppe Getto
9. The Motivations of the Marginalized: Identifying and Navigating Hegemonic Factors in Petroleum Risk Communication
Joseph E. Williams
Part 2: Transforming Society
10. Engaging Eurocentric Legacies in de Certeau's Thinking Through a Self-Reflection on "Queering Tactical Technical Communication"
Avery Edenfield and Steve Holmes
11. DIY Instructions in BIKINI KILL: A Feminist Historiographical Approach to Tactical Technical Communication
John L. Seabloom-Dunne
12. Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Case for Metical Technical Communication
Kevin Van Winkle
13. Armed Propaganda and the Ethics of Horrorism: Tactical Communiques from the Weather Underground
Brad Lucas
14. Hospitality at the End of the World: An Ideological Rhetorical Criticism of Tactical Technical Communication in The Prepper Journal
Ryan Cheek
15. Marx in the Digital Age: The Critical Role of Tactical Technical Communication in Contemporary Humanism
Sandy Brack
16. The Narrative Construction of Social Justice in Technical Communication Pedagogy
Tracy Bridgeford
17. Finding Agency Through Tactical Technical Communication: Privacy and Data Surveillance
Sarah Young and Jason Pridmore
Contributors
Index