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Article

French

ID: <

10.4000/activites.2154

>

·

DOI: <

10.4000/activites.2154

>

Where these data come from
Design joint collective activity: dialogical survey

Abstract

The first part of the article offers a theorization of the concept of “collective activity.” The notion of “process”, very present in management research and practices, refers to joint collective activity, i.e. collective activity combining local activities which involve distinct competences. The configuration process of an organization is contingent and defined through reflexive inquiry of actors on their own collective activity. The processes and the reflexive inquiries which are constructed are dialogical (Todorov, 1981), i.e. their sense is built through interactions between actors. The collective activity is semiotically mediated. Pragmatist inquiry (Dewey, 1938) tries to build practical and theoretical responses to uncertain situations, by intricately combining reasoning and action and by introducing an evaluative dimension. Collective activity, through inquiry, is given a specific social-spatial-temporal configuration, its “chronotope” which leads to the shaping of the community of concerned actors and the frame of reference which can be used by the study.In the second part, a case study is presented about a collective attempt to improve work safety in a building company. The study focuses on the “design and planning process of the construction project”. A collective reflexive inquiry method was adopted involving the actors, involved in the process, as co-researchers. A major problem for safety identified by the working group is the deep divide, in managerial and cultural terms, between design-planning-preparation and building. The sense of work and situations is shaped through two distinct chronotopes: “design and planning process of the construction project” and “carrying out the building site”. The proposed analysis leads to an indepth review of the definition of the professional world, interpreting frameworks and concepts, eliminating the distinction between the world of design and building as it is generally understood and applied by firms and researchers. There are numerous implications for the skills, the definition of professional values and roles, technical tools, the management systems and resource allocation.

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