Yrjö Engeström

University of London. Institute of Education. School of Lifelong Education and International Development

Toward an Activity-theoretical Reconceptualisation

Expansive Learning at Work

Georg Rückriem

Joachim Lompscher

Cultural-historical activity theory is a powerful toolkit for social sciences. This book demonstrates how the Finnish school of developmental work research uses activity theory in the analysis and practical transformation of work, technology and organizations. Developmental work research is a longitudinal and interventionist approach. Researchers aim at generating, supporting and following cycles of expansive learning in the activity systems they study. The process opens up qualitatively new possibilities for creating use values and for developing the capabilities and agency of the practitioners and their clients. Critical dialogue and partnerships are built between the researchers and the organizations they study. In their 18 chapters, the 23 authors of the book give a broad sample of work done over a period of ten years in the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. The theoretical and methodological themes range from the polyphony of activity to relationships between history, ethnography and interventions. The empirical chapters range from the work of teachers and judges to collaboration between industrial enterprises. Yrjö Engeström is Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. Joachim Lompscher (1932-2005) was Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at University of Potsdam. Georg Rückriem is Professor Emeritus of Education at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Cover photo: Faces of the authors in the order of their chapters.

Contributions from Developmental Work Research

Putting Activity Theory to Work

A conceptual and practical toolkit for creating learning processes with the help of interventions in workplaces, schools and communities.

Studies in Expansive Learning

Michael Cole

Olga A. Vasquez

Yrjo Engestrom

Olga Vasquez

This volume presents articles important to contemporary studies of the cultural and contextual foundations of human development. It address es the need to create a Psychology which focuses upon the actions of people participating in routine, culturally organized activities. The discussion includes: the nature of context; experiments as contexts; culture-historical theories of culture, context and development; the analysis of classroom settings as a social important context of development, the psychological analysis of activity in situ, and questions of power and discourse.

Seminal Papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition

Mind, Culture, and Activity

International Labour Office

Neither traditional book learning nor the acquisition of fixed routines by practice and imitation are adequate for coping with rapidly changing work activities. Work-related training of adults faces the challenge of raising the quality of learning. This book offers a framework for eliciting and supporting poductive learning through instruction. Training for change presents a cognitive and activity-theoretical view of learning and teaching. The book gives concrete guidelines and practical examples for the formulation of cognitive objectives of instruction, for the organization of learning contents, for the selection of instructional methods, and for the planning of curricula. It is useful for everyone interested in turning workplaces into learning organizations. Yrjö Engeström is Professor of Communication and Director of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition at the Universty of California, San Diego.

New Approach to Instruction and Learning in Working Life

Training for Change

"Developmental work research is an innovative approach to the study and reshaping of work and learning. It expands cultural-historical activity theory by bringing it to the domains of work, technology and organizations. The world of work is in turmoil, increasingly dominated by 'runaway objects' generated by globalization and greed (global markets are such massive objects out of control). Yet it is the object that motivates work and generates visons of better future. The use values of objects have not vanished, although they are more difficult to grasp than perhaps ever before. Developmental work research rediscovers and expands use values in runaway objects. In workplace interventions it engages practitioners in expansive re-forging of the objects of their work."--Cover.

Expanding Activity Theory in Practice

Developmental Work Research

Yrjö Engeström

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