Developing Activity Theory in Information Studies (DATIS)

Abstract

Over the last two decades the use of Activity Theory has grown within the field of information studies. However, while there is a budding community, the use and development of Activity Theory in information studies remains underdeveloped and fragmented. This community building workshop provides an opportunity to: (1) introduce information scholars to the basic conceptual premises of Activity Theory focusing on the use, development and contribution of Activity Theory; (2) provide a forum to extend the development of Activity Theory; and (3) It will also provide a networking opportunity for scholars already utilizing Activity Theory and an opportunity to discuss the contributions iSchool scholars can make to the wider Activity Theory community.

Digital storytelling and memory institutions: A case study using activity theory

“…Rooted in 1920s Soviet psychology, activity theory has evolved as a theoretical tool for studying human activities situated in the social contexts in which a user acts (Nardi, 1996). Recently, the fields of both Information Systems (Karanasios et al, 2015) and Information Studies (Allen, 2016;Wilson, 2013) have seen a growing and keen interest in the application of activity theory because of the theory's ability to bring together both technology and context under the same unit of analysis, namely an "activity" or "activity system". Engestrom's (1987) "third generation" model of activity theory, the most widely-adopted by researchers today (Allen et al, 2011), incorporates the following constructs (see Figure 1).…”