From change to development expanding the concept of intervention
Jaakko Virkkunen
Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research
Marika Schaupp
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
ISCAR 2008
Introduction: our hypotheses
 Currently, the development of work activities is largely carried out
through short-term change projects, in which industry ‘best practices’
are implemented
 In methodological discussion formative interventions in work activities
are also often depicted as stand-alone, one-time actions without
paying attention to more sustaining relationships between activities.
 In the new societal conditions of the global “high tech” capitalism and
“information society” a mastery of complex societal activity systems
calls increasingly for

theoretical-genetic thinking and generalizations (as opposed to abstractempirical generalizations concerning ‘best practices’)

long term interaction between research and practice
 Therefore also new applications of the basic theoretical insights of the
Cultural Historical Activity Theory are needed
Our presentation
 We will first discuss shortly three key concepts of activity theory
from the point of view of linkages between specialized activity
systems
 the
zone of proximal development
 the
method of double stimulation as a prototype of cultural
remediation and formative intervention
 forms
of generalization
 Then we will describe a case concerning the development of an
individual’s activity and her learning of theoretical-genetic
generalization in work development
 Finally we use the case to explain our idea of extended
intervention
The zone of proximal development
Vygotsky’s concept of an individual’s ZPD: social support that
leads to independent use of a cultural artifact.
del Rio & Alvarez: ZPD is not only about provisional support but also
about the establishment of new permanent connections in the
functional design of cultural systems.
Engeström’s concept of the ZPD of an activity: recurrent doublebind situations in individuals’ daily actions in an activity can be
overcome by collaboratively creating a historically new form of the
activity that has become culturally possible
Two questions:
How to understand the development of individual actions into a new
form of collective activity?
What is the role of inter-activity connections in the ZPD of an
individual and an activity system?
Vygotsky’s method of double stimulation
as a prototype of remediation and of formative intervention
First stimulus: a problem that the subject cannot solve with the
help of the previously learned concepts and methods.
Second stimulus: a neutral artifact that the subject can make into
an instrument for organizing the problematic situation and working
out a solution.
The process of remediation in which the subject makes a cultural
artifact into an instrument in his/her the action
In real life work activities the “problematic first stimulus” is often
related the need of a customer. The second stimulus can be
provided by a tool providing activity.
Intervention can be understood as a special form of social support
for the process of remediation: for encountering a challenge (first
stimulus), for finding a cultural artifact (second stimulus), and for
making the artifact into an instrument for the action in order to meet
the challenge.
The process of remediation in an activity system:
practitioners’ learning activity
The collaborative creation of a historically
new form of activity can take place in
practitioners’ joint learning activity, which
means a change of focus from individuals’
actions to the structure of the joint activity.
Methodology
Models
New activity
Collective
Individual
Context
Problem
Learning activity calls for instruments to carry
out genetic-theoretical analysis of the local
Community of
Rules for collectives
Division of labour
collectives
between collectives
activity system and to model its
Division of labour
developmental contradictions:
Rules for individuals
Community of
between individuals
individuals
Developmental Work Research methodology
Engeström 1987: The structure of learning
and
the Change Laboratory method based on it
activity
are such instruments, but they are demanding
and cannot be used without support
Phases of learning a new form of generalizing
in Tina's activity
Tina the In-house
developer
Object
The first
stimulus
The second
stimulus
Inter-activity
connections
1. Tina becomes a
trusted developer
Coaching teams in
collaborative work
Complex
object/
inadequate
tools
Change
Laboratory as a
potential tool
New client
relationships,
contact to the
methodological
community of DWR
2. Learning genetic
analysis and
modeling in team
development
Supporting a
team’s learning
activity
3. Expansion in the
object of
development
Supporting the
learning activity of a
business unit
Shared
broader new
object with one
client
Methodology
training → new
interpretation of
orders and the
tool
New client order
and support from
the methodological
community lead to
a new form activity
4. Connecting CL to
a new road building
concept?
Creating tools for
business units to
implement a new
production concept
Discussions
with the
development
manager to
define the
object of
development
CL as a
methodology for
supporting
learning activity
connected to the
current change
Production
management and
designers as clients
and co-developers,
methodological
community as
resource
Re-interpretation
and negotiation of
orders with clients
A chain of cycles of expansive development and
interventions
The “first stimulus” emerges in the activity through client contacts and the
“second stimulus” and support through contacts with members of a
methodological community.
Stabilization
and mastery
of the use of
instruments
C ED 2
C ED1
FS1
I1
FS2 FS3
I2
SS1
C ED 3
C ED 4
CED1,2 ... = IN TE RD EP END ENT
CYCLE S OF EXPAN SIVE
DE VE LOP MEN T
FS1, 2 ... = FIRST STIMUL US 1, 2, ....
SS1, 2 ... = SECOND STIMULU S 1,2...
I 1, 2 ...
= INTE RVENTIO N 1,2,...
FS4
I3
SS2
I4
SS3
Legend:
SS4
Expansion from actions to new
kind of collaborative activity
Conclusion
The development of a new kind of activity that is based on a
demanding methodology calls for a sustained relationship
between the specialists of the methodology and the
practitioners making it into an instrument in their activity.
Such a sustained relationship makes it possible for the
specialists to use the emerging challenges in the
practitioners’ activity as the basis for a chain of interventions,
in which the practitioners make the methodology step by step
more comprehensively into an instrumentality in their activity.