If someone is interested, we (myself, Anne Puonti and Laura Seppänen)
recently wrote a paper on space and time in a CHAT perspective, drawing
on findings of three recent empirical studies. The paper should come
out within a couple of months. Here is the information:
Engeström, Y., Puonti, A. & Seppänen, L. (2003). Spatial and temporal
expansion of the object as a challenge for reorganizing work. In D.
Nicolini, S. Gherardi & D. Yanow (Eds.), Knowing in organizations. M.
E. Sharpe.
Cheers,
Yrjo Engestrom
On Tuesday, Jul 15, 2003, at 21:49 Europe/Helsinki, Bill Barowy wrote:
> Just time for a brief opinion -- and opinions being like belly
> buttons i have
> one too -- I consider space and time to be cultural constructs, as are
> the
> tools that make their meaning and measurement (clocks, rulers, etc.).
> Consequently, Engestrom's CHAT need not be extended in principle, but
> only
> more fully explicated with these and related constructs instantiating
> the
> element of artifacts, in the manner of Wartofsky. Quick examples are
> how
> special relativity and then general relativity systematically
> reconceptualize
> space and time over cartesian constructs, how the Internet has broken
> down
> space/time barriers to communications, and how print (now more
> generally
> "information storage" has extended our memory.
>
> But that is not the only element that is explanatory of space and
> time. In
> Engestroms's CHAT the category of rules carries the routines, the
> "scripts"
> in the Shank an Abelson sense, and, in part, the "synomorphs" in
> Barker's
> sense, the contraints and affordances of Gibson (aka Norman) of how
> humans
> access, move through, and exploit space and time. Schedules,
> driving/walking
> on the right in the US or on the left in the UK, staying on the proper
> side
> of the tennis net, and, my favorite example, is the breaking of spatial
> scripts by skateboarders, who grind on a hand rail and ollie over
> curbs,
> steps, and fences.
>
> Anyway, apologies for such a compulsive post. But I do recommend
> highly using
> Barker's work as a foil in this discussion.
>
> bb
>
>
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