This study uses examples from a case of everyday technical and professional communication (TPC) at a small multinational company on the Mexico–U.S. border to illustrate how coordinating analytical frameworks commonly used in TPC analyses—activity theory (AT) and actor-network theory (ANT)—can help TPC scholars and practitioners negotiate interpreting others’ asynchronous communication fairly and justly, even in complex, intercultural contexts. The examples illustrate why developing normative ethics for the 21st century requires attention to the ways that goal-oriented activity and the flat, networked interaction of the human, nonhuman, and black-boxed forces intersect in everyday TPC practitioners’ lives and work.

本研究以墨西哥-美国边境的一家小型跨国公司的日常技术和专业交流 (TPC) 案例为例，说明 TPC 分析中常用的分析框架——活动理论 (AT) 和行动者网络理论是如何协调的。 ANT)——即使在复杂的跨文化环境中，也可以帮助 TPC 学者和从业者公平公正地协商解释他人的异步通信。这些例子说明了为什么发展 21 世纪的规范伦理需要关注以目标为导向的活动以及人类、非人类和黑盒力量在日常 TPC 从业者的生活和工作中相互交叉的方式。