Learning for the Complex Object of Work in a Digital Printing Network

Abstract

This article investigates the learning of a digital printing network that was seeking sustainable collaboration in the textile, clothing, and interior printing industry. Digitalization is transforming work, giving rise to new types of networks and creating learning challenges for participants. The object of digital printing activity becomes heterogeneous, open-ended, and indefinite. The concept of the complex object of work, which is based on cultural-historical activity theory, is introduced to examine the dynamics between the digitalization of work and network learning. Data were collected at the starting phase of the network collaboration, when participants discussed the future object of the digital printing activity. The participants were involved in design, textile manufacturing, digital printing, vocational education, and research, and consumer-customers were also represented. The authors argue that revealing the complexity of the object of work on multiple levels of learning is crucial to enhancing innovation in the networks of the digital age.

Opinnollistaminen nuorten työpajan ekspansiivisena toimintakonseptina ja yhteistyöverkoston haasteena

“…Nuorten koulutus-ja oppimistarpeet muodostavat työn monimutkaisen kohteen (vrt. Toiviainen & Vetoshkina 2018), jota rakennetaan verkostoyhteistyössä työpajan, koulutuksen ja työelämän risteyskohdassa. Ensimmäinen päätelmä on, että työpajan kohde laajenee vastaamaan nuorten koulutuksellisiin tarpeisiin.…”

Dimensions of expansion for configuring learning spaces in global work

“…In Engeström's (2001) case, it was decision-making mediating the patient's care as the object of a health-care network. We recognise that the dimensions analysed in our study address a heterogeneous constellation of objects and that the objects of activity are multi-layered (Toiviainen, 2007;Toiviainen and Vetoshkina, 2018).…”

From the abstract to the concrete and beyond:

“…They are understood as carriers of motives (Miettinen, 2005;Kaptelinin, 2005). There is also a distinction between the generalized object of a historically developed activity, and a specific object as it appears for a specific subject in a given action in a specific time and space (Engeström et al, 2003; object of activity may be conceptualized as complex, having a variety of instantiations (Toiviainen & Vetoshkina, 2018).…”

“…Analysis of the object of activity reveals the dynamics of motivation and intentionality behind human actions, where basic concepts of ANT are not so useful (Miettinen, 1999;Vetoshkina, 2018). Objects, especially in the analysis of collective activities, networks and communities, appear as complex entities (Toiviainen & Vetoshkina, 2018). This requires further concretization to bring forth different aspects of the object of activity.…”