How is a diagram seen by those who make it? Approach of postures and tensions in informative discourses of diagrams

Abstract

The informative diagrams as cultural objects are related to a specific discursive production; this discourse confers consistence to the social field that creates the diagrams. In detail, the discourse establishes the historical and ideological guidelines that support the creation, implementation and use of diagrams as an actual object. But the informative diagrams discourse is far from the desired theoretical and conceptual homogeneity, indeed, it is full of tensions and disputes about hegemony into the discursive field. In fact, different positions, with its respective followers and promoters, defend specific conceptions about ethics, esthetics, communication practice, information management, among others aspects. This article describes and contextualizes three positions with the aim to understand some discursive tensions and the impacts of these tensions into the diagrammatic representations.