Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research

Hannele Kerosuo, Ph.D, Researcher

Email: hannele.kerosuo@helsinki.fi
Tel.: +358 9 191 44275
Fax: +358 9 191 44579

Postal address:
Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research
P.O. Box 26
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Current Activities

Crossing inter-organizational boundaries between companies is increasingly important for the efficient use of resources and potential for development. For public organizations, such as hospitals or health-care centers, connections between organizations open ways for improving the quality and effectiveness of care, especially for patients whose care is provided by many organizations. Instead of creating inter-organizational ties, the professionals commonly seem to perform without knowledge of each other’s actions, causing uncertainty, overlaps, or even neglects and fragmentation of care. In my study, the focus of interest is the inter-organizational space, the border zone between patients and the organizations of primary and specialized care. Juri Lotman describes “the boundary, the frontier between “ours” and “yours”, as a space, in which meaning-creating processes are exposed to “the constant invasions from the outside”. In health care, the boundaries and the border zone may appear both as a terrain of limits and a possibility for development and learning. What kind of border activity, or clusters of actions, are emerging in the border zones? What kind of opportunities do they provide for reshaping the health care work?

The data of my research was gathered in a development project where a new tool, “the care agreement” and a new practice, “the negotiated knot-working”, were implemented in medical patient care. The new tool and practice are meant to improve the recently recognized problems of chronic patients with many illnesses, in internal medicine. The process of implementation is approached as the co-configuration of the tool and practice between patients, professionals and researchers.

Short Biography

I have a history of working in the public sector as a head of a day-care unit, and recently as a planner in a local social and health care unit. My scientific background is in adult education and semiotics. I am a free-time artist.

Documents

		Kurssin suoritus A 2.8 Kurssin_suoritus_A28.pdf	PDF 12.36 KB
		Kurssin suoritus ATMO Suoritukset_ATMO.pdf	PDF 2.98 KB
		Tutkijan haastattelu Tutkijan_haastattelu.ppt	MS PowerPoint 35.5 KB

Web Links

Kerosuo, H. (2006). Boundaries in Action