Abstract
The computer support of cooperation and knowledge production across socially distributed activity systems has become an important topic in the context of the discourse on „knowledge management“. The present article will draw on concepts of cultural-historical activity theory to discuss the problem of how the notion of „knowledge“ is conceptualized and implicitly implemented in computer systems to support knowledge management, often neglecting the social embeddedness of knowledge production in everyday work practices. From the point of view of cultural-historical activity theory we would propose to look upon the generation of knowledge as a process embedded in socially distributed activities that are constantly being reproduced and transformed in and between specific communities of practice. The concept of cooperative model production is highlighted as a means to mediate, not to eliminate, differences of perspectives involved in the course of systems design. Empirical results of a case study will be presented in which the Repertory-Grid has been used to visualize similarities and differences of potential users’ viewpoints and requirements in early stages of systems design.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ackerman, Mark S. (1994): Definitional and contextual issues in organizational and group memories. Twenty-seventh Hawaii International Conference of System Sciences (HICSS), January 1994, pp. 191–200.
Agre, Phil (1995): From High Tech to Human Tech: Empowerment, Measurement, and Social Studies of Computing. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). An International Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 167–195.
Bannister, C. & Fransella, F. (1986). Inquiring man. London: Routledge.
Bannon, L. & Bodker, S. (1997): Constructing common information spaces. In J. Hughes, T. Rodden, W. Prinz & K. Schmidt, ECSCW97: Proceedings of the 5th European CSCW Conference. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Bannon, Liam J. and Kari Kuuti (1996): Shifting perspectives on organizational memory: From storage to active remembering. Proceedings of Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-29). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 156–167.
Blackler, Frank (1995): Knowledge, knowledge work and organizations: An overview and interpretation. Organization Studies, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1021–1046.
Davenport, Thomas H. and Laurence Prusak (1998): Working knowledge. How organizations manage what they know. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Engeström, Yrjö (1987): Learning by Expanding. An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Yrjö (1992): Interactive Expertise. Studies in distributed working intelligence. Research Bulletin, no. 83. Helsinki: University of Helsinki, Department of Education.
Floyd, Christiane (1993): STEPS — A Methodical Approach to PD. CACM 36 (6): 83
Gärtner, Johannes and Ina Wagner (1996): Mapping actors and agendas: Political frameworks of systems design and participation. Human Computer Interaction, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 187–214.
Gaines, Brian R. and Mildred L.G. Shaw (1992): Knowledge acquisition tools based on personal construct psychology. Knowledge Engineering Review — Special Issue on Automated Knowledge Acquisition Tools, vol. 8, pp. 49–85.
Kelly, G.A. (1955): The psychology of personal constructs: A theory of personality. New York.
Kühn, Otto and Andreas Abecker (1997): Corporate memories for knowledge management in industrial practice: Prospects and challenges. Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 929–955.
Lave, Jean and Etienne Wenger (1991): Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leont’ev, Alexei N. (1978): Activity, consciousness, and personality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Muller, Michael J. and Sarah Kuhn (1993): Participatory Design. Special Issue of the Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 24–28.
Newell, Allen and Herbert A. Simon (1972): Human problem solving. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall
Nonaka, Ikujiro (1994): A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, vol. 5, pp. 14–37.
Polanyi, Michael (1967): The tacit dimension. London: Routledge.
Raeithel, Arne (1992): Semiotic self-regulation and work. An activity-theoretical foundation for design. In C. Floyd, H. Züllighoven, R. Budde, and R. Keil-Slawik (eds.): Software development and reality construction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 391–415.
Raeithel, Arne and Boris Velichkovsky (1995): Joint attention and co-construction. New ways to foster user-designer collaboration. In B. Nardi (ed.): Context and consciousness. Activity theory and human-computer-interaction. Boston: MIT Press, pp. 199–233.
Scheer Jörn W. and Ana Catina (1996): Empirical Constructivism in Europe — The Personal Construct Approach. Giessen: Psychosozial Verlag.
Star, Susan L. (1989): The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. In L. Gasser and M.N. Huhns (eds.): Distributed artificial intelligence. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, pp. 37–54.
Stein, Eric W. and Vladimir Zwass (1995): Actualizing organizational memory with information technology. Information Systems Research, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 85–117.
Suchman, Lucy A. (1987): Plans and situated actions. Cambridge: University Press.
Trigg, Randy H. and S. Irwin Anderson (1996): Introduction to this special issue on current participatory design. Human-Computer Interaction. Special Issue on Current perspectives on participatory design, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 181–185.
Tuomi, Ilkka (1999): Corporate Knowledge: Theory and Practice of Intelligent Organizations. Helsinki: Metaxis.
Wehner, Theo; Clases, Christoph and Reinhard Bachmann (2000): Cooperation at work: A process-oriented perspective on joint activity in inter-organizational relations. Ergonomics, 43 (7), 983–998.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 B. G. Teubner GmbH, Stuttgart/Leipzig/Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Clases, C. (2001). Cooperative Model Production in Systems Design to Support Knowledge Management. In: Oberquelle, H., Oppermann, R., Krause, J. (eds) Mensch & Computer 2001. Berichte des German Chapter of the ACM, vol 55. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-80108-1_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-80108-1_23
Publisher Name: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag
Print ISBN: 978-3-519-02748-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-322-80108-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive