Multimodal strategies of theorization: Retracing the fifty year institutionalization of reinforced concrete.

Abstract : This paper examines the role of multimodal strategies in processes of theorization. Empirically, we investigate the theorization process of a highly disruptive innovation in the history of architecture: reinforced concrete. Relying on archival data from a dominant French architectural journal from 1885 to 1939, we studied how this new material became legitimized for the construction of buildings. Our early coding revealed three multimodal strategies associated with theorization: emotional, narrative, and lexical. Our intention when developing the full paper is to articulate these findings with well-known rhetorical strategies and develop a process model of theorization.