Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' introduction
- 1 Activity Theory Between Historical Engagement and Future-Making Practice
- PART ONE UNITS OF ANALYSIS
- PART TWO MEDIATION AND DISCOURSE
- 5 Mediation as a Means of Collective Activity
- 6 Digital Technology and Mediation: A Challenge to Activity Theory
- 7 Contextualizing Social Dilemmas in Institutional Practices: Negotiating Objects of Activity in Labor Market Organizations
- PART THREE EXPANSIVE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
- PART FOUR SUBJECTIVITY, AGENCY, AND COMMUNITY
- PART FIVE INTERVENTIONS
- Bibliography
- Author Index
- Subject Index
7 - Contextualizing Social Dilemmas in Institutional Practices: Negotiating Objects of Activity in Labor Market Organizations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editors' introduction
- 1 Activity Theory Between Historical Engagement and Future-Making Practice
- PART ONE UNITS OF ANALYSIS
- PART TWO MEDIATION AND DISCOURSE
- 5 Mediation as a Means of Collective Activity
- 6 Digital Technology and Mediation: A Challenge to Activity Theory
- 7 Contextualizing Social Dilemmas in Institutional Practices: Negotiating Objects of Activity in Labor Market Organizations
- PART THREE EXPANSIVE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
- PART FOUR SUBJECTIVITY, AGENCY, AND COMMUNITY
- PART FIVE INTERVENTIONS
- Bibliography
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
In sociocultural and activity-theoretical perspectives, institutions are understood as communities of practice with intermediary functions; they regulate and handle conflicts and dilemmas between individuals and collectives in society. How institutional actors deal with such dilemmas, and what consequences their activities will have for the collective as well as for individuals, are important issues to explore (Engeström, 2005a; Engeström & Toivianen, in press). Through their rules and practices, institutions act as arbiters of opportunity, making decisions about how certain situations are to be interpreted in an ambiguous world of complex social activities (Mäkitalo & Säljö, 2002a). One interesting feature of such communities is how they accommodate the emergence of tensions and conflicts that challenge the institutional order and established practices. In this chapter we primarily address the notion of community in this sense, with a focus on how institutional agency is constituted at the local level.
A historically significant conflict in society is that between labor and capital. Many of the institutions that are responsible for health care, social welfare, or taxation, for instance, directly or indirectly intervene in such matters when making decisions as to whether individuals and groups are entitled to certain benefits. In times of societal transformation and changes in production, tensions may emerge in the labor market concerning the obligations and entitlements of workers and employers. During such periods of transformation, institutions have to respond to new challenges coming from the outside.
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- Learning and Expanding with Activity Theory , pp. 112 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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