Received: 8 August 2005 Revised: 24 September 2005 Accepted: 28 September 2005 Abstract This paper discusses Claudio Ciborra’s critique of traditional economic rationality. It recounts his account of the Mann Gulch Disaster. The important aspect of his reading of the disaster is that apparently irrational actions may provide appropriate solutions for complex problems. He bases this observation ...

In a previous presentation at this workshop (Ben-Ari, 1999), the second author described an experiment in which (even) science educators studying for advanced degrees displayed abysmal performance on non-routine tasks using a word processor. The performance was described as bricolage, a term first used by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to describe the primitive science of a ‘savage’, and ap...

Communities present considerable challenges for the design and application of supportive information technology (IT), especially when these develop in loosely-integrated, informal and scarcely organized contexts, like it is often the case of Communities of Practice (CoP). An approach that actively supports user communities in the process of IT appropriation can help alleviate the impossibility ...

concrete in a compelling and original way. In high culture, this is the challenge for the artist. In the world of the everyday, it is the challenge for the designer, and also for the lay person, the bricoleur who assembles his or her objects, laying them out or putting them on, as in DIY, or `do it yourself'. Consider the following conversation between two women who encounter each other on the ...

Current structural specifications for design theory and guidelines for Design Science fall short of creating theories that account for user tinkering, secondary design tailoring, and the interactions of supporting kernel theories. This paper offers an expansion of design theory conceptualization by incorporating aspects of design which occur in everyday technology use. Currently, design theory ...

Longitudinal research projects into social practices are both subject to and capture changes in society, meaning that research is conducted in a fluid context and that new research questions appear during the project’s life cycle. In the present study emerging new performances and uses of ICT are examined and the relation between network society competences, learners’ informal learning strategi...

Scientific thought is generally characterized as methodical and rational. I would like to present here an opposing view which treats science as a non-systematic activity, where serendipity and tinkering , rather than so-called rational thought, characterizes it. All these kinds of acts, which are considered to be a-rational, are related to an evolutionary view of science. I will deal here with ...

Received: 10 October 2005 Revised: 11 October 2005 Accepted: 11 October 2005 ‘After all, an improviser must anticipate before playing, and composing is a slowed-down improvisation; often, one cannot write fast enough to keep up with the stream of ideas.’ The central part of this sentence from ‘Brahms the Progressive,’ one of Arnold Schoenberg’s most renowned and influential writings (in Style a...

In this paper we extend transactive memory systems (TMS) theory to develop an understanding of the distributed coordination of expertise in high-reliability organizations. We illustrate our conceptual developments in a study of emergency management and response in Greece. We focus on the interaction between operators/dispatchers, ambulance crew, and specialist doctors, including the information...