Cognition and Communication at Work

by Engestrom, Yrjo; Middleton, David

• ISBN13: 9780521645669
• ISBN10: 0521645662
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

This book brings together contributions from researchers within various social science disciplines who seek to redefine the methods and topics that constitute the study of work. They investigate work activity in ways that do not reduce it to a "psychology" of individual cognition or to a "sociology" of societal structures and communication. A key theme in the material is the relationship between theory and practice. Mindful practices and communicative interaction are examined as situated issues at work in the reproduction of communities of practice in a variety of settings including: courts of law, computer software design, the piloting of airliners, the coordination of air traffic control, and traffic management in underground railway systems.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii	(2)
Acknowledgments	ix
1 Introduction: Studying work as mindful practice	1	(14)
Yrjo Engestrom
David Middleton
2 Distributed cognition in an airline cockpit	15	(20)
Edwin Hutchins
Tove Klausen
3 Constituting shared workspaces	35	(26)
Lucy Suchman
4 Seeing as situated activity: Formulating planes	61	(35)
Charles Goodwin
Marjorie Harness Goodwin
5 Convergent activities: Line control and passenger information on the London Underground	96	(34)
Christian Heath
Paul Luff
6 Users and designers in mutual activity: An analysis of cooperative activities in systems design	130	(29)
Susanne Bodker
Kaj Gronboek
7 System disturbances as springboard for development of operators' expertise	159	(18)
Leena Norros
8 Expert and novice differences in cognition and activity: A practical work activity	177	(22)
Edith A. Laufer
Joseph Glick
9 The tensions of judging: Handling cases of driving under the influence of alcohol in Finland and California	199	(34)
Yrjo Engestrom
10 Talking work: Argument, common knowledge, and improvisation in teamwork	233	(24)
David Middleton
11 The collective construction of scientific genius	257	(22)
Chandra Mukerji
12 Experience and the collective nature of skill	279	(17)
Harley Shaiken
13 Working together: Symbolic interactionism, activity theory, and information systems	296	(23)
Susan Leigh Star
14 On the ethnography of cooperative work	319	(22)
Arne Raeithel
Index	341