Carola Wolf and Paula Jarzabkowski focus on activity theory as an approach for studying strategy as practice. The origins of activity theory can be found in Lev Vygotsky’s seminal work, but it has been developed and used in a variety of ways, including foundational work in strategy as practice. Wolf and Jarzabkowski offer an overview of activity theory and propose an organizing framework for understanding how activity theory has been used in strategy as practice research: activity-in-practice, activity as part of practice, or activity-as-practice. They next explain the key theoretical elements of activity theory, which leads them to focus on how activity can be conceptualized as a product of activity systems, including the actors, the community that the actors interact with and the symbolic and material tools that mediate between actors, their community and their pursuit of activity. In this discussion, they not only highlight existing contributions but explain how future research could go much further using an activity theory approach.

This chapter presents an approach to the study of learning which analyzes small groups – such as a dyad, a group, a classroom – or large groups – for example, a community or a social movement. This approach is based on a situativity or sociocultural theory of cognition and learning, where learning is “situated” within complex social and material contexts known as activity systems. Sociocultural theories are related to cultural-historical activity theory, situated learning theory, distributed cognition theory, and cultural psychology. These theories suggest that a full account of learning must extend beyond individualist psychology to analyze and explain social practices, technological artifacts, interactional patterns, and the different roles occupied by the participants.