Where and how to see activities (social practices, interactions)
communication, coordination
collaboration, co-construction
“Where” and how perspectives come together
Intermediate Concept Construction & Conceptualizing Units of Analysis
Unit of analysis (activity theory)
“One should be able to delineate the object of research and to draw a boundary between the object and the background, and one should be able to find an entity in which all the threads of research can be conveniently connected.” (Kuutti, p. 249)
Activity system (lifeworld)
Object(s) of activity
irreducibly material and ideal
shared object(s)
Intermediate Concept Construction & Conceptualizing Units of Analysis
Conversation analysis, discourse analysis are common methods
Alternative Conceptual Frameworks: Cultural Historical Activity Theory
Cultural Historical Activity Theory
Internal structure of activities (Leontiev)
oriented by, guided by
activity <-> object of activity (motive)
actions <-> goals
operations <-> conditions
Cultural Historical Activity Theory: Context, Intermediate Concepts & Units of Analysis
Cultural Historical Activity Theory
Unit of analysis (activity theory, K. Kuutti)
Contexts of activities
In activity theory, the basic unit of analysis requires “an intermediate concept -- a minimal meaningful context for individual actions . . . an activity. Because the context is included in the unit of analysis, the object of our research is always essentially collective, even if our main interest lies in individual actions.” (Kuutti, p. 254)
Cultural Historical Activity Theory: Context, Intermediate Concepts & Units of Analysis
Cultural Historical Activity Theory
Dialectical materialist perspective
Development over time; change over time
Learning, expansive cycles
Contexts of activities
Organizational context
Sociohistorical context
Situated contexts
How contexts interact & co-construct instances of activities
Alternative Conceptual Frameworks: Actor-Network Theory
Actor-Network (for example)
Heterogeneous ensembles of people and artifacts, human and non-human actors/actants
Semiotic analysis
Technologies, systems, applications, artifacts as actors
ontologies of non-human actants ->actors
Intermediaries between actors, co-constructing, enrolling, translating, inscribing, aligning actor-networks
Alternative Conceptual Frameworks: Actor-Network Theory
Actor-Network Theory
ex: laboratory information system, defining the actor-network for standards-making (Hanseth & Monteiro)
ex: middleware for interoperability: virtual ethnography of technology-in-the-making and collaboration among competitors (semiotic analysis, including analysis of gestures, metaphors) (S. Newman)
Ex: Participatory design of IS for a Film-Television-Radio company: thinking about who to include in the research and development? (Kensing & Simonsen)
Alternative Conceptual Frameworks
Other examples
Ex: Unit of analysis for study of influence of television coverage of the Intefada, comparative study of Jewish and Arab Israeli families
