Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet

1. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Conceptual frameworks for field research • Unit of analysis (activity theory, Kuutti) • Alternative frameworks • Case examples

2. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Conceptual frameworks for field research • Selective by necessity • What do you want to know about? • How can you see it? • Who to include? • Power of multi-disciplinary research teams • Building a cumulative picture • Mapping knowledge and understandings

3. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Conceptualizing activity systems and activities in work settings • How do you conceptualize the work? • Visible <-> invisible work • Front office <-> back office • Roles & responsibilities, • Perspectives, divisions of labor • How is the work held together? • Intermediaries, coordination

4. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory, K. Kuutti) • Intermediate construct • Activity: between structures and individuals • Where and how to see joint activities • communication, coordination • collaboration, co-construction • “Where” and how perspectives come together • Between concepts (theory lenses) and data • What you see in the field, on the ground • How concepts “live,” situated in contexts in the field • Making sense of field research

5. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory) • “One should be able to delineate the object of research and to draw a boundary between the object and the background, and one should be able to find an entity in which all the threads of research can be conveniently connected.” (Kuutti, p. 249) • Activity system (lifeworld) • Object(s) of activity • irreducibly material and ideal • shared object(s)

6. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory) • Activity system (lifeworld) • Developmental work research • Graphical representation (Engeström) • Mapping, analysis, visualization • Communities of practice, larger communities • Networks of activity systems, communities (Korpela)

7. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory) • Sociocultural, cultural historical school • Voice, social languages, genres • Dialogicality, polyphony, heteroglossia (Bakhtin) • Argumentative structure of thinking, heterogeneity • Conversation analysis, discourse analysis are common methods

8. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory) • Internal structure of activities (Leontiev) • oriented by, guided by • activity <-> object of activity (motive) • actions <-> goals • operations <-> conditions

9. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory, K. Kuutti) • Contexts of activities • In activity theory, the basic unit of analysis requires “an intermediate concept -- a minimal meaningful context for individual actions . . . an activity. Because the context is included in the unit of analysis, the object of our research is always essentially collective, even if our main interest lies in individual actions.” (Kuutti, p. 254)

10. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Unit of analysis (activity theory, K. Kuutti) • Dialectical materialist perspective • Development over time: • Learning, expansive cycles • Contexts of activities • Organizational context • Sociohistorical context • Situated contexts • How contexts interact & co-construct instances of activities

11. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Alternative frameworks • Actor-Network (for example) • Heterogeneous ensembles of people and artifacts, human and non-human actors/actants • Semiotic analysis • Technologies, systems, applications, artifacts as actors • ontologies of non-human actants ->actors • Intermediaries between actors, co-constructing, enrolling, translating, inscribing, aligning actor-networks

12. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet • Case examples • Consequences of conceptual frameworks • Gregory: Electronic health record • crafting video documentation to see clinical teamwork • Simonsen & Kensing: Ethnographic design study • inclusion of actors, who to include? • Ribak et al.: Viewing television news and political socialization • Families viewing evening news together to understand inter-generational political socialization

13. Begrepsapparat for feltarbeidet