Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research

Kangasoja, J. (2002). Complex Design Problems - An Impetus for Learning and Knotworking, in: P. Bell, R. Stevens, T. Satwicz (eds), Keeping Learning Complex: The Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Learning Sciences (ICLS); Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, (2002), pp.199-205

Learning at work increasingly takes place through collaboration, which is both discontinuous in time and spans organizational boundaries. These collaborative efforts are characterized by being problem oriented and improvised. This type of work has been tentatively called 'knotworking' because it seems to tie and untie knots between otherwise separate threads of activity. The paper highlights the duality of learning challenges involved in knotworking. These involve on one hand the need for the participating stakeholders to critically reflect on themselves, their mutual roles and responsibilities, and on the other hand to expand both conceptually and pragmatically their understanding regarding the problem that initially brought them together.