Introduction: Exploring Activity Across Education, Work, and Everyday Life

Sawchuk, Peter H.; Duarte, Newton; Elhammoumi, Mohamed

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511509568.002

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…However, Fine (2004Fine ( , 2006 points out that two key political economy approaches to well-being, that of Sen and that of critical realism, both neglect to relate directly their respective philosophical frameworks to the theory of capitalism. This same criticism can be levelled at many contemporary proponents of activity theory (see Sawchuk et al, 2006). In our view, Fine is right to regard the political economy of well-being and the political economy of capitalism as inseparable from one another.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 77%

“…2-3;Fine, 2004, p. 161;Lawson, 2003, pp. 141-64;Sawchuk et al, 2006). The aim of this section is to draw on these approaches, and other consonant approaches (in particular that of Green, 2006), in order to develop a political economy perspective on job quality that is specifically tailored to challenge the new economics of happiness.…”

Section: A Political Economy Perspective On Job Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

Brown¹,

Charlwood²,

Forde³

et al. 2007

Cambridge Journal of Economics

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This paper assesses the record on job quality during the early term of office of the New Labour government by interpreting, from a political economy perspective, changes in a variety of subjective measures of job quality taken from several different data sources. We find some improvements in job quality over the period 1998-2004; however we argue that these improvements have arisen not because of New Labour's policies towards the workplace but because of low and falling rates of unemployment. Despite recent improvements, a large number of workers in Britain remain in low quality jobs and, without a radical change of policy direction, sustained and substantial progress in the quality of work will remain elusive.

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Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: A Political Economy Perspective On Job Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

Brown¹,

Charlwood²,

Forde³

et al. 2007

Cambridge Journal of Economics

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“…Sociomaterial perspectives not only question the acceptance of differential categories such as individual/organization and binaries of subject/object, knower/known etc, but also challenge the givenness of fundamental distinctions between human and non-human. The assumption that entities are anterior to their representation is refuted, to focus on the material and discursive practices through such debates cannot be addressed satisfactorily in this brief overview, interested readers might start by consulting Sawchuk et al (2005), Educational Philosophy and Theory Vol 40 No 1 (2008) (special issue on complexity and education), Osberg and Biesta (2009), Law and Hassard (1999), and Fenwick and Edwards (2010 forthcoming). which entities and their interactions are enacted into being. Sociomaterial accounts also examine how the differential boundaries separating entities are stabilized, and destabilized.…”

Section: Socio-materials Perspectives On Learning and Knowledge In Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re‐thinking the “thing”

Fenwick

2010

Journal of Workplace Learning

134

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Purpose: This article compares theoretical conceptions that reclaim and re-think material practice -'the thing' in the social and personal mix -specifically in terms of work activity and what is construed to be learning in that activity. Approach: The article is theory-based. Three perspectives have been selected for discussion: cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), actor-network theory (ANT), and complexity theory. A comparative approach is used to examine these three conceptual framings in context of their uptake in learning research to explore their diverse contributions and limitations on questions of agency, power, difference, and the presence of the 'thing'. Findings: The three perspectives bear some similarities in their conceptualization of knowledge and capabilities as emerging -simultaneously with identities, policies, practices and environment -in webs of interconnections between heterogeneous things, human and nonhuman. Yet each illuminates very different facets of the sociomaterial in work-learning that can afford important understandings: about how subjectivities are produced in work, how knowledge circulates and sediments into formations of power, and how practices are configured and re-configured. Each also signals, in different ways, what generative possibilities may exist for counter-configurations and alternate identities in spaces and places of work. Value: While some dialogue has occurred among ANT and CHAT, this has not been developed to compare more broadly the metaphysics and approaches of these perspectives, along with complexity theory which is receiving growing attention in organizational research contexts. This article purports to introduce the nature of these debates to work-learning researchers and point to their implications for opening useful questions and methods for inquiry in workplace learning.

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“…Given these changes in work activity, activity theorists are increasingly concerned with addressing knowledge work. In the past few years, at least three collections on activity theory have addressed how it must adapt to discussing knowledge work (Daniels, Edwards, Engeström, & Ludvigsen, 2010; Sannino, Daniels, & Gutierrez, 2009; Sawchuk, Duarte, & Elhammoumi, 2006), as have various monographs (Engeström, 2008; Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006; Spinuzzi, 2008).…”

Section: The Theoretical Problem: Changes In Work Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Losing by Expanding

Spinuzzi

2011

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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Third-generation activity theory (3GAT) has become a popular theoretical and methodological framework for writing studies, particularly in technical communication. 3GAT involves identifying an object, a material or problem that is cyclically transformed by collective activity. The object is the linchpin of analysis in the empirical case. Yet the notion of object has expanded methodologically and theoretically over time, making it difficult to reliably bound an empirical case. In response, this article outlines the expansion of the object, diagnoses this expansion, and proposes an alternate approach that constrains the object for case-study research in writing studies. Keywords activity theory, research methodology, objectOver the last 15 years, third-generation activity theory 1 (3GAT) has become a popular theoretical and methodological framework for writing studies, especially in professional communication. Many publications have dealt

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Introduction: Exploring Activity Across Education, Work, and Everyday Life

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

Re‐thinking the “thing”

Losing by Expanding

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