From Teams to Knots: Activity-Theoretical Studies of Collaboration and Learning at Work (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives) - Softcover

Engeström, Yrjö

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521148499 ISBN 13: 9780521148498

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Teams are commonly celebrated as efficient and humane ways of organizing work and learning. By means of a series of in-depth case studies of teams in the United States and Finland over a time span of more than ten years, this book shows that teams are not a universal and ahistorical form of collaboration. Teams are best understood in their specific activity contexts and embedded in historical development of work. The book develops a set of conceptual tools for analysis and design of transformations in collaborative work and learning.

About this title

Book Description:

This book analyzes the development of work teams as work itself changes. It shows that fixed and stable teams are being replaced by fluid forms of constantly changing collaboration across organizational boundaries. This is a big learning challenge and an opportunity for practitioners to redesign their work and organizations.

About the Author:

Yrjö Engeström earned his Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki in 1987. He is a Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE) at the University of Helsinki. He is Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, where he also served as Director of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition from 1990 to 1995. Engeström applies and develops cultural-historical activity theory as a framework for the study of transformations and learning processes in work activities and organizations. He is widely known for his theory of expansive learning and for the methodology of developmental work research.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0521148499
• ISBN 13: 9780521148498
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278