Expansive Visibilization of Work: AnActivity-Theoretical Perspective

  • Authors:

  • Yrjö/ Engeströ/m

  • Affiliations:

  • The Academy of Finland, Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research, P.O. Box 47, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland yrjo.engestrom@helsinki.fi/ and University of California, Sa ...

  • Venue:
  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work - Special issue: a web on the wind: the structure of invisible work
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

Work is commonly made visible along two dimensions: the linearand the socio-spatial. Both are limited to depicting work in terms of relatively discrete actions. Activity theory introducesthe crucial distinction between collective activity systems andindividual actions. Expansive visibilization of collectiveactivity systems offers a powerful intervention methodology fordealing with major transformations of work. The linear and thesocio-spatial dimensions of work actions are seen in the broader perspective of a third, developmental dimension of workactivity. Four steps are identified in a cycle of expansivevisibilization, combining activity-level visions and action-levelconcretizations. The cycle is examined in detail as it unfoldedin an intervention study at a children‘s hospital in Finland.It is concluded that expansive visibilization, driven bycontradictions and seeking to reconceptualize the object andmotive of work, is not a straightforward process which canbe neatly controlled from above. Coherent analytical explanation and goal-setting may come only after the creationand practical implementation of innovative solutions.