Cognition and Communication at Work

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 nor to a ‘sociology’ of societal structures and communication. A key theme in the material is the relationship between theory and practice. This is not an abstract problem of interest merely to social scientists. Rather, it is discussed as an issue that working people address when they attempt to understand a task and communicate its demands. 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.

• Addresses computer supported collaborative work (cscw), a hot topic • Ties in with situated learning, also a hot topic

1. Introduction: studying work as mindful practice Yrjö Engeström, David Middleton; 2. Distributed cognition in an airline cockpit Edwin Hutchins, Tove Klausen; 3. Constituting shared workspaces Lucy Suchman; 4. Seeing as situated activity: formulating planes Charles Goodwin, Marjorie Harness Goodwin; 5. Convergent activities: line control and passenger information on the London Underground Christian Heath and Paul Luff; 6. Users and designers in mutual activity: An analysis of cooperative activities in systems design Susanne Bødker, Kaj Grønbæk; 7. System disturbances as springboard for development of operators’ expertise Leena Norros; 8. Expert and novice differences in cognition and activity: A practical work activity Edith A. Laufer; 9. The tensions of judging: handling cases of driving under the influence of alcohol in Finland and California Yrjö Engeström; 10. Talking work: argument, common knowledge and improvisation in teamwork David Middleton; 11. Scientific ‘genius’ and laboratory signatures Chandra Mukerji; 12. Experience and the collective nature of skill Harley Shaiken; 13. Working together: Symbolic interactionism, activity theory and distributed artificial intelligence Susan Leigh Star; 14. On the ethnography of cooperative work Arne Raeithel.