The work process setting and situational contexts based on socially distributed cognition: an interactive, cognitive and social proposal of analysis

Abstract

To carry out an ethnographic study on the work process in the sterilization unit of a hospital in Catalonia (Spain), we found the socially distributed cognition approaches of Hutchins and Kirsh useful. However, these approaches lack sufficient explanation on three important issues: (a) the pragmatic criteria for identifying and delimiting a relevant unit of analysis and therefore the setting and contexts of the work process; (b) the mechanisms and results of reciprocal influences between these levels of analysis; and (c) the relation between these levels. Therefore, we added several new elements to these approaches, in addition to Layder's model of contexts with some important modifications, with the aim of offering an interactive, cognitive and social proposal of analysis that clarifies these three issues, allowing a more exhaustive and broader empirical analysis that captures better the ‘social’ dimension embedded in the work processes.

Distributed Attention: A Cognitive Ethnography of Instruction in Sport Settings

“…Moreover, the unit of analysis cannot be the individual, but must jump to interactive system that connects people and things in a physical and social environment (Alac, 2005;Clark, 2008;Gibbs, 2006). Most studies on cognitive ethnography take place in scientific, medical or educational settings (Barranco et al, 2017;Knorr-Cetina, 1999;Muntanyola Saura & Kirsh, 2010;Muntanyola-Saura, 2012, 2014a, 2014bWilliams, 2006). There are few examples of reflexive accounts of the technique of observation in sports; one of them can be found in Lefebvre (2016) specifically in aikido.…”

“…So participants make sense of their interactions through distributed lingustic narratives. Finally, in Barranco, Lozares, and Moreno () distributed cognitive resources include activities and instruments (material, linguistic, relational, economic) with a social value determined by the workers' status.…”

Un análisis reticular del discurso con métodos mixtos para la interpretación de entrevistas cualitativas

“…La segunda concepción que adoptamos es la de la cognición humana aportada por la perspectiva del «conocimiento distribuido» (Hutchins, 1995;Hollan et al, 2000;Hutchins, 2014). Esta se opone al reduccionismo cognitivista-simbolista y parte del sistema interactivo persona-entorno-cognición, necesariamente a un nivel social (Barranco et al, 2017). Si el cognitivismo simbolista no tiene en cuenta los efectos de las características de las situaciones en los marcos cognitivos movilizados por las personas en sus actos comunicativos, contrariamente, el conocimiento distribuido entiende la comunicación y la cognición humanas como realidades incorporadas de (y para) un tipo de conocimiento que se alimenta en la praxis (Lozares, 2007).…”