Continuing the Dialogue on Collaboration

Abstract

In this article, we seek to establish a dialogue with the authors of “The Challenge of Studying Collaboration” (John-Steiner, Weber, & Minnis, 1998), a piece written in response to our previous AERJ article (Clark et al., 1996). Although we agree with some parts of their critique, we resist some of their suggestions because of our differing sets of assumptions about the appropriate goals and criteria for scholarly inquiry. The dialectic between our differing approaches to studying, theorizing, and representing collaboration illuminates issues that we hope others may find useful in examining their own assumptions about the nature and scope of scholarly inquiry.