Investigating chronotopes to advance a dialogical theory of collaborative sensemaking

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the contribution offered by the dialogical approach in understanding the interconnectedness of the situated sensemaking and situation-transcending processes occurring during the collaborative finalization of a product. We propose a dialogical theory of sensemaking based on the concepts of chronotope, voice and artefact mediation, aimed at investigating how multiple space–time frames are interconnected in collaborative sensemaking. We argue that this analysis is complementary to both the semiotic and the institutional analyses of sensemaking, which constitute the basis of our theorizing. To concretely illustrate our proposal for a chronotopic analysis of collaborative sensemaking, we qualitatively discuss an excerpt taken from a meeting of a multidisciplinary professional team working on the finalization of a web platform meant for enterprises.