Project Studies: Embeddedness in Field and Theory <sup/>

Naturally occurring conversations, especially those occurring where there is controversy—a not uncommon project experience—provide excellent data. This article commences with a discussion of a controversy over whether an excavation into clay was normal. This leads into a discussion of contracts, which broadens to include their role as indexical items and objects of autopoiesis. The article concludes with some practical advice on how to research projects through controversies that arise from interpretation of their documentation.