Visibilization - Engestrom's Made Up Word

This is Engestrom's word - not mine. In a footnote, he explains that he prefers it to visualization to describe making work visible. Since he's already documented this word, I can use it.

Today, I read "Expansive Visibilization of Work - An Activity-Theoretical Perspective." This 1999 paper was published in Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol 8, p. 63-93. I read this paper on the recommendation of Dr. Robert Bracewell - a professor at McGill University - when I asked for methodological advice. This was an excellent recommendation.

For me, the most important idea in this paper was the four-step process toward visibilization:

1. Focus on troublesome situations and represent them.
2. Connect trouble spots to the activity system.
3. Design new actions.
4. Analyze the new actions.

I want to do at least two things with these steps, although I'm not confident I'll get the results I hope to find. Succeed or fail - it's worth exploring. First, I want to review Chris Hartmann's dissertation to see if I can find evidence of these steps in his subjects' actions. (I think I'll be able to do so). If not, I can review his SITE 2004 paper to see if there's more information there. Engestrom used his work with hospitals to illustrate these steps. I hope to use Hartmann's work to illustrate these same steps in the CHAT chapter. I think that'll be a tidy way to integrate portfolio literature with CHAT literature.

Second, I want to keep my eyes open for evidence of the people I visit at my research sites going through similar steps as they approach their work. At the AERA workshop last week, Stanton and Natalia told us to always watch for "change" as we try to apply Activity Theory to our work. These stages will give me a framework for the interview probes.

Note to self: Do not shoehorn the data into a theory - make sure it's actually there! I can run it by the DAG if I think I'm in danger of seeing things that aren't there.