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In this chapter, Greenberg evaluates the capacity of different interpretive frames to make sense of editing practice. In a panoramic view of intellectual history, the chapter tracks the shifting fortunes of ideas as they swing between idealism and materialism. In the idealist tradition, the focus is on social and radical constructivism, including approaches identified as critical theory. Greenberg argues that whatever their strengths, this tradition risks making the practitioner invisible or reductively symbolic. Some forms of constructivism are also marked by extreme relativism that can negate the importance of decision-making, which is central to editing as a lived practice. Responses to that tradition include Habermas's communicative rationality, Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and other examples of "the material turn". The chapter ends by arguing for a multiframe approach, to discourage critical closure and maximise the visibility of practitioners.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92246-1_6

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