[Xmca-l] Activity/CHAT, work teams, and the utopian reconciliation of production and consumption

[Douglas Williams]

Hi--

I have Engestrom's Teams and Knots on order, and I'm aware that there is an expanding literature on what Engestrom has called "horozontal" development of activity systems in the workplace, but I am wondering if anyone might have particular recommendations for recent applied work on the engagements of polyphonic communities in the workplace. It is my experience that in both the creation and consumption of products, multiple communities interact with each other through the medium of the product. The result is a kind of co-construction of the object out of consumer use and developmental modeling and practices, but in general, the dialogues through which this happens are rather tortured. I am aware of the Action Research approach to the issue, but while getting people to examine unspoken reasons for dysfunctional interactions is not a bad start, I'm interested in as much practical, contextualized examples of system remediation as I can find...keeping in mind
 that all too often, when one speaks the word "theory" in the world of deadlines and remorselessly urgent action, conflicting voices invariably unite in reaching for their guns--happily, only in the abstract sense, though negative results are real enough. 

As you see, I have my own version of science fiction on the mind.

Regards,
Doug