Hombres y mujeres colaborando (metafóricamente)

De un estudio recogido en Narrative Interaction. Las metáforas usadas por las mujeres para describir relaciones de colaboración sugieren que tiene menos dudas emocionales a la hora de embarcarse en estas relaciones, y que describen la dinámica de la colaboración en téminos más generalmente positivos (189). Los hombres desconfían más de la colaboración, aunque también reconocen sus ventajas.

"The more cautious and individualistic nature of the male participants emerges more clearly in the metaphors they produced when talking about negotiation and dialogue. The metaphors indicated that in spite of a willingness to surrender to an integrated relationship men still quietly fought to maintain a small degree of independence and identity. Women, on the other hand, were much less overtly resistant to the collaborative process and therefore achieved a more smoothly running ensemble appearance. This slight tension between individual and group identity with the men many have resulted in a greater number of metaphors dedicated to negotiation and dialogue because they were constatnly having to work and rework their roles and positions". (190).

Otra noción interesante es la construcción imaginativa de un espacio colaborativo mediante la metáfora:

"collaborators strive to create and share a mental working or participation space in which htey could both move in and out of depending on the context or situational demands. It was clear from their metaphors that the collaborators constructed and experienced this space in relation to their own bodies and this 'area' was an essential component in the actual collaboration." (182).

Las metáforas usadas por ambos sexos incluyen movimiento y dinámica a partes iguales,

"but a deeper analysis showed that men tended to move in a linear trajectory down a conceptually tangible path while women moved in more multi-dimensional 'off-path' directions. Women also appeared to move more from the surface into the depths of the path, the result of which was more comments on the dynamics of general change. Men remained clearly entrenched either on or near the path., therefore they made more observations regarding discrete stages." (186).

 

John-Steiner, Vera, Christopher Shank and Teresa Meehan. "7. The Role of Metaphor in the Narrative Co-Construction of Collaborative Experience." In Narrative Interaction. Ed. Uta M. Quasthoff and Tabea Becker. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005. 169-95.