While we have tried to separate them here, Scalar actually collapses boundaries between Parts and Paths, revealing the true inseparability of form and function. In Scalar, it is not just the pages and media but the connections themselves that become an important aspect of the content with significant theoretical and rhetorical effects for creators and users alike. In our experience, the effect of these theoretical and rhetorical considerations was to emphasize the interconnections between co-authors and their contributions; privilege attention to both creators and users as co-creators of content through their unpredictable hypertext navigation choices; and embrace the ability of users to see the materials through their own lenses and to contribute to the work of recovery and meaning-making on their own terms, from their own specific positionalities.  These are feminist goals. 

In their articulation of feminist values, Almjeld et al. (2016) describe feminist texts as “challenging systems of hegemonic power and normative practices.” In this way, the variety of navigational possibilities represent a more liberatory way of reading that encourages nonhierarchal vectors of knowledge creation for readers, and reveals the political stakes of any design choice for composers. 

At the same time, one challenge to enacting these ideals can be identified in the struggle for creators and users to take advantage of the nonlinear opportunities of navigation. This was our experience, as we found ourselves pulled towards more traditional organizational structures to support us, particularly in working with a large group of collaborators with different visions and at points in our learning when other aspects of the cognitive load were already taxing. Similarly, a reader might have the impulse to fall back on a chronological narrative instead of using nonlinear tools, such as visualizations or tags, especially if unfamiliar with the concepts being explored.

Thus, while our own intended pathway through the content of our Scalar an(ti)thology (and the present webtext) is structured largely by paths, made visible in the Table of Contents, we echo Scalar’s interest in empowering readers to uncover unanticipated theoretical relationships between chapters. Indeed, in our anthology’s “Introduction,” we write:

“Each read, [this text] may be different. Please, take a time to revisit this and see how you may understand it differently. That is what "everyday literature" is about…We hope our selections or authors may show themselves to you in more ways than one.”

Of course, we might have gone further to facilitate these theoretical relationships ourselves, but we are also intrigued with the ways the affordances of Scalar’s interface empower users to create their own connections, regardless of our own plans or intents as composers. This aligns well with our conception of feminist recovery as a performative and not merely constative practice–one evolving and ongoing, under construction through readers’ participation and not merely accomplished in our own acts of composing (see Sarah Noble Frank, 2017). This “constructive hypertext” work is accomplished through Scalar’s tags, visualizations, while links and search bar functionality provide more “exploratory hypertext” functionality. 

Whether a creator or user chooses to utilize linear or nonlinear navigation systems, we argue that Scalar supports feminist recovery work by providing these dynamic options that empower both readers and writers to challenge their normative approaches to textual creation.