This page intentionally left blank learning and expanding with activity theory This book is a collection of essays on cultural-historical activity theory as it has been developed and applied by Yrjö Engeström. The work of Engeström, rooted in the legacy of Vygotsky and Leont’ev, focuses on current research concerns that are related to learning and development in work practices. Engeström’s publications encompass various disciplines and develop intermediate theoret- ical tools to deal with empirical questions. In this volume, Engeström’s work is used as a springboard to reflect on the question of the use, appropriation, and further development of the classic heritage within activity theory. The book is structured as a discussion among senior scholars, including Engeström him- self. The work of the authors applies classical activity theory to pressing issues and critical contradictions in local practices and larger social systems. Annalisa Sannino is University Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Helsinki in Finland. She completed her Ph.D. in psychol- ogy at the University of Nancy in France and worked as a researcher in the Department of Education at the University of Salerno in Italy. Her research is focused on discourse, experiencing, and learning in interventions in educa- tional institutions and work organizations. She has published research articles in refereed journals in English, French, and Italian. Harry Daniels is Professor of Education, Culture, and Pedagogy and Director of the Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. From 2002 to 2005, he was editor of the inter- national journal Mind, Culture, and Activity. His research interests include sociocultural and activity theory, innovative learning in the workplace, spe- cial needs and social exclusion, and patient and career information seeking. In 2001, he published the book Vygotsky and Pedagogy, which has subsequently been translated into several languages. Kris D. Gutiérrez is Professor of Social Research Methodology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her current research interests include the socio- cultural contexts of literacy for language minority students. Her research also focuses on understanding the relationship between language, culture, develop- ment, and pedagogies of empowerment. In 2005, Gutiérrez received the Sylvia Scribner Award of the American Educational Research Association. Learning and Expanding with Activity Theory Edited by Annalisa Sannino University of Helsinki Harry Daniels University of Bath Kris D. Gutiérrez University of California, Los Angeles CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521760751 © Cambridge University Press 2009 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-65159-5 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-76075-1 Hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-75810-9 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Contributors page ix Editors’ Introduction xi 1 Activity Theory Between Historical Engagement and Future-Making Practice 1 Annalisa Sannino, Harry Daniels, and Kris D. Gutiérrez part one: units of analysis 2 Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Organization Studies 19 Frank Blackler 3 Uses of Activity Theory in Written Communication Research 40 David R. Russell 4 On the Inclusion of Emotions, Identity, and Ethico-Moral Dimensions of Actions 53 Wolff-Michael Roth part two: mediation and discourse 5 Mediation as a Means of Collective Activity 75 Vladislav A. Lektorsky 6 Digital Technology and Mediation: A Challenge to Activity Theory 88 Georg Rückriem v vi Contents 7 Contextualizing Social Dilemmas in Institutional Practices: Negotiating Objects of Activity in Labor Market Organizations 112 Åsa Mäkitalo and Roger Säljö part three: expansive learning and development 8 The Concept of Development in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: Vertical and Horizontal 129 Michael Cole and Natalia Gajdamashko 9 Two Theories of Organizational Knowledge Creation 144 Jaakko Virkkunen 10 Contradictions of High-Technology Capitalism and the Emergence of New Forms of Work 160 Reijo Miettinen 11 Spinozic Reconsiderations of the Concept of Activity: Politico-Affective Process and Discursive Practice in Transitive Learning 176 Shuta Kagawa and Yuji Moro part four: subjectivity, agency, and community 12 From the Systemic to the Relational: Relational Agency and Activity Theory 197 Anne Edwards 13 Expansive Agency in Multi-Activity Collaboration 212 Katsuhiro Yamazumi 14 The Communicative Construction of Community: Authority and Organizing 228 James R. Taylor 15 Research Leadership: Productive Research Communities and the Integration of Research Fellows 240 Sten Ludvigsen and Turi Øwre Digernes part five: interventions 16 Who Is Acting in an Activity System? 257 Ritva Engeström Contents vii 17 Past Experiences and Recent Challenges in Participatory Design Research 274 Susanne Bødker 18 Clinic of Activity: The Dialogue as Instrument 286 Yves Clot 19 The Future of Activity Theory: A Rough Draft 303 Yrjö Engeström Bibliography 329 Author Index 359 Subject Index 365 Contributors Frank Blackler Natalia Gajdamashko Lancaster University Management Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, School, United Kingdom Canada Susanne Bødker Kris D. Gutiérrez University of Aarhus, Denmark University of California, Los Angeles, United States Yves Clot Conservatoire National des Arts Shuta Kagawa et Métiers, Paris, France University of Tsukuba, Japan Michael Cole Vladislav A. Lektorsky University of California, San Diego, Russian Academy of Sciences, United States Moscow, Russia Harry Daniels Sten Ludvigsen University of Bath, United Kingdom InterMedia, University of Oslo, Norway Turi Øwre Digernes InterMedia, University of Oslo, Åsa Mäkitalo Norway Göteborg University, Sweden Anne Edwards Reijo Miettinen University of Oxford, United University of Helsinki, Kingdom Finland Ritva Engeström Yuji Moro University of Helsinki, Finland University of Tsukuba, Japan Yrjö Engeström Wolff-michael Roth University of Helsinki, Finland University of Victoria, Canada ix x Contributors Georg Rückriem Annalisa Sannino University of the Arts, Berlin, University of Helsinki, Finland Germany James R. Taylor David R. Russell University of Montreal, Canada Iowa State University, Jaakko Virkkunen United States University of Helsinki, Finland Roger Säljö Katsuhiro Yamazumi Göteborg University, Sweden Kansai University, Osaka, Japan Editors’ introduction Annalisa Sannino, Harry Daniels, and Kris D. Gutiérrez In 1884 the Finnish realist artist Albert Edelfelt completed a painting e n t i t l e d Boys on the Shore. In the painting three boys are playing with small handmade sailing boats on the shore. There is an expansive view of the horizon in the background, with sailboats in the harbor. The painting provides a dynamic perspective on a world of possibilities experienced in the play of the three boys. At the same time, corresponding historically consolidated activities are carried out in the background. The three boys are involved in different ways in a joint action, oriented toward the move- ment of a boat in the water. The painting powerfully depicts the contrast between the strength and the fragility of the collective action. Two boys are positioned precariously on rocks, while the third is about to move toward them, stepping on an uneven and slippery surface. One of the boys is lean- ing toward the water with a wooden stick in his hand, trying to guide his boat through the current. The scene in this painting metaphorically illustrates key features of the process of expansion as described in Yrjö Engeström’s book Learning by Expanding ( 1987). Engeström’s comment on children’s play could well apply to Edelfelt’s painting: Old and new, regressive and expansive forms of the same activity exist simultaneously in the society. Children may play in a reproductive and repetitive manner, but they do also invent and construct new forms and structures of play, new tools and models for play activity. Their play- ing seems to become increasingly consumptive and pre-fabricated, the exchange-value aspect seems to dominate it more and more as the toys and games have become big business. But is it so simple and uni- directional? What are the inner contradictions and historical perspectives of the play activity of our children? Once in a while parents are astonished as they find their children playing something which does not seem to fit any xi xii Editors’ Introduction Figure I.1. Boys on the Shore (Albert Edelfelt, 1884). preconceived canons: something new has been produced “from below.” Sometimes these inventions from below become breakthroughs that significantly change the structures of play activity. (1987, pp. 173–174) Expansion is a form